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The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:03 pm
by fig
Volks, the moment we’ve all been waiting for …

As many of you know, the single most asked question on these forums relates to VWSA’s unique palette of paint and interior colours. This has also been the least answered question, as VWSA destroyed its archive, and nobody has been able to find any record of these. Until now …

Gerhard Ryksen of Gerhard’s Volksie Museum in Bloemfontein recently acquired VWSA paint and upholstery manuals for the years 1963 to 1977. This past weekend I had brief access to these manuals and used my time with them to photograph all the pages. Because of poor light, my pics of all the paint colour and upholstery swatches are not of much use, but I’ve posted below all the tables with the names of the colours and upholstery combinations year by year. From 1967, the manuals also list the paint and upholstery codes. As well as telling us the codes, this info should also be a great help in decoding VWSA’s arcane VIN plates.

Volkswagens in South Africa were painted in the usual German colour palette until 1959. From 1960, locally assembled VWs were painted with local paints in a unique colour range unrelated to VW paint colours overseas. As some will notice from these lists, many of VWSA’s names were the same as those used by VW in Germany, but the colours are not the same.

Paint and upholstery tables follow, year by year. Note that some pages are missing:

Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:04 pm
by fig
1963:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:04 pm
by fig
1964:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:05 pm
by fig
1965:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:06 pm
by fig
1966:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:07 pm
by fig
1967:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:08 pm
by fig
1968:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:09 pm
by fig
1969:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:10 pm
by fig
1970:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:11 pm
by fig
1971:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:12 pm
by fig
1972:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:14 pm
by fig
1973:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:16 pm
by fig
1974:

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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:17 pm
by fig
1975:

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234B refers to the Fleetline kombi:
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Re: The Holy Grail found: VWSA paint & upholstery codes

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:18 pm
by fig
1976:

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