Wheel disc colour of '53 Sahara Beige oval....

[Nessy]

Can anyone tell me the factory colour of the wheel centres on a '53 Sahara Beige L272 oval?
According to the Wolfsburg West colour charts the centres are L57 Tile red but the Bob Wilson 1949-59 book claims they are L53 Sealing Wax red, which is correct?

Thanks

Paul


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1972 1302LS Convertible RHD

[Nessy]

Nobody know?
Am now even more confused as I've read on The Samba that the VW logo in the middle of the hubcaps should be white for a '53, the books say body colour, but the caps on my car have traces of red paint in the logo, matching the wheel discs.......
The wheels are all stamped 3/53 and dont ever appear to have been re-painted , hub caps also appear OG , so what is the correct colour scheme?


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1972 1302LS Convertible RHD

[sotos]

Over 10 years and more than 1500 views I think is time for a respond,maybe not entirely definitive but certainly exhaustive!
One of the few things my June 1953 Sahara Beige L-272 oval had well preserved was the wheels disc color ,after I removed painstakingly numerous layers of paint that the POs had applied over the years that is.
There was of course more or less minor chipping here and there so a color code was needed for some touch up painting so I had to to do a thorough research.
Only recently with the kind addition of "October 1952 to July 1955 Paint and Upholstery Book" from member yustrn we had a factory documentation that confirms that the oval Sahara Beige L-272 body color has wheel discs painted with Tile Red L-57.
Is that correct? I believe it is :
The "Volkswagen Paint Chips and Mixing Formulas "brochure (http://karmannghia.org/paint_chips.html) is very useful for some color code decoding.
In the page index below I have enclosed in boxes what appears to be same basic color groups e.g. the greens starting with the digit 1, the greys with digit 2 and so on.

Focusing to the topics question reds begin with 5, so for the Sahara Beige oval disc wheel color which obviously belong to the red color group we have these choices :
L-50,L-51,L-52,L-53,L-54,L-55,L-56,L-57,L-58 and L-59.
From the "Volkswagen Paint Chips and Mixing Formulas " we have a page that has (with mixing formulas!) the six of the ten "red" color group above : L-50,L-51,L-53,L-54,L-55 and L-59 and two more pages that informs us when and where these colors were used ...almost.

The "October 1952 to July 1955 Paint and Upholstery Book" (https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/52_55_color_book.php)has information for three of the remaining four of the "red color group",L-56,L-57 and L-58 which are immediately connected with the relevant body colors :

From all the above we can compile this list :
L-50 Coral Red :no information when and where it was used color chip and mixing formula exists.
L-51 Bordeaux Red :used from July 49 to March 51 on types 113,114,117,118 ,color chip and mixing formula exists.
L-52 :Terra Cotta ,no other info available*.
L-53 Sealing Wax Red:Only type2.
L-54 Poppy Red :Only type 1 Karmann Cabriolet.
L-55 Maroon :Only type 1 Karmann Cabriolet.
L-56 Pastel Red: wheel disc color with body color L-19 Atlantic Green,Deluxe from March 1953 to December 1953 ,no color chip.
L-57 Tile Red :wheel disc color with body color L-272 Sahara Beige,Deluxe from March 1953 to December 1953 ,no color chip.
L-58 Ruby :wheel disc color with body color L-35 Metallic Blue,Deluxe from March 1953 to December 1953,no color chip.
L-59 Cherry Red:Only type 1 Karmann Cabriolet.

Please note that the list above is what info is available e.g.there is information that L-53 Sealing Wax Red was used on type2 only but we can not be certain that it wasn't used elsewhere especially to smaller parts, although to the original question of OP the good quality L-53 color chip looks like the color of my wheel but I think is more "reddish"(the chip) ,it is confirmed that Sahara Beige had L-57 Tile Red painted wheel disc but with no color chip for comparison we can't be 100% certain.
Also note that the three digit color codes seem ,in most cases, in their second digit to follow the above described "color group code"e.g.L-253 Rose (incidentally wheel disc color for body color L-279 Dolomite).

In conclusion although after this research we are at about the same dilemma that originally Paul had "is it L-53 sealing wax red or L-57 tile red ?" the difference now is that we just need at least a photo of an L-57 Tile Red color chip to confirm that it is the correct wheel disc color, and there is no other candidate.

*Note:I found the name of the color L-52 at http://www.volksbolts.com/faq/paint-codes.htm although the source is unknown.[/url]
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http://www.komenda-porsche-designer.at/
Oval53 (June)
Beetle 1.3 1966
New beetle 1.6 2003

[sotos]

[mozart]

Here is an original paint 11/53 Sahara Beige/Tile Red wheel with Tile Red logo on hubcap.

[sotos]

Thanks for the photo mozart , nice patina !

There should be a number stamped at the inner circumference of the hubcap (a letter with a 3 digit number) , If the hubcaps on your oval are all original it would be interesting to know if indeed there are such numbers from that period and how they relate to each other eg :

same number ->part number or batch number or date of manufacture?

numbers in sequence ->serial numbers ?

numbers not related to each other -> indicating just a tooling code ?

Maybe worth to take a look if for any reason you remove the hubcaps.
_________________
http://www.komenda-porsche-designer.at/
Oval53 (June)
Beetle 1.3 1966
New beetle 1.6 2003

[mozart]