FYI... if you search for Manly tan online you get very little and the few hits you get vary a long way. Today I went searching on my car for original paint... was easy to find I just had to stick my head in and have a look. It has been a few years! I gave it a quick polish and this is what it looks like. On my phone and monitor this is a very good representation of the actual colour. Up the top of the tunnel the pic is slightly darker. I reckon that is spot on. It's not like coral red despite what you read on the forums. Nowhere near the pinky tone. Its brown!

I believe its an Aussie only colour ....


hence the name...

Lee

Not popular back then. Even less popular today. Im not a fan. I don't think the car will be going back that way.

Yes. it was a Balm-Dulux colour for Australia only, used in 1956-59 according to the old Dulux catalogues. The Dulux colour code is 7940.

My Dad's '59 that he bought new was Manly Tan. This is a Kokachrome slide from the mid-60s. I always remember it being a chalky brown - he never kept the polish up on it. In the early '70s he resprayed it bright orange.

http://www.clubvw.org.au/vwpaint 

So they started out Manly Tan and faded to Coral Red?

36 horse with a boat van and family on board must have been fun up and down hills. What does a tow bar look like? Assume it goes to torsion bar and then supported by bumper brackets?

looking at the pic on my screen, looks a cross of brown and peach

Yes Chris, as far as I can remember the tow bar went up under the engine and bolted to the torsion bars. Dad blew up the 36-horse quite early on, as well as numerous replacement engines he built from scavenged parts over the years. I have many memories of him spending late evenings down in the garage, rebuilding a blown engine in time so he could get to work next day. I think by the late '70s, when I started to learn to drive in it, it had a 1500 Kombi-based engine. He ended up selling it in 1978 to a mate who lived nearby, so it was weird to see it being driven by someone else around the neighbourhood. His mate sold it in 1980 and the new (young) owner later wrote it off. It was pretty tired by then though.

I remember Dad telling me once that he was hit up the backside by a Holden taxi on the way home from work. It had the towbar on. His VW was kicked forward by the impact but suffered no damage. The Holden had its bumper, grille and radiator punched in and had to be towed.

That photo above was taken at Mannering Park on Lake Macquarie, where we sometimes went during school holidays. The boat was a home-made sabot that he used to teach high school kids to make in woodwork. It was a slow trip up from Hawkesbury River to Gosford on the old highway with all that on board! Good times.

Ray Black has a lovely Manly Tan VW. It features (with his numerous other VWs) in one of the episodes of the ABC Collectors Show:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/collectors/segments/s2949572.htm 

The best Beetle tow bar was attached in 3 places. Clamps around the torsion tubes, brackets under the 2 M18 cradle bolts, and at 2 of the rear bumper bolts.

Having fitted a few when I was an apprentice at a VW dealer, I never want to fit another one.

Quote:

Originally posted by HappyDaze Having fitted a few when I was an apprentice at a VW dealer, I never want to fit another one.

WHAT happened there Jeff ??

It just wanted Jeff to scrarch it's tummy.

Latest bulletin... I took my semaphores out last night to see what shape they're in. Pretty bloody good. But one is yellow, one's orange neither are original. hmmm.

This is the link to Ray Black's Manly Tan 1956 Beetle. Ray has just put it up for sale. See the upcoming issue of Zeitschrift for details.

http://members.netro.com.au/~vwcc/rb56.htm 

Yeah I've seen that pic before. But it looks almost red to me. And the comment attributed to ray about the colour doesnt make sense to me cos the colour I see is plenty browny/tan. But i know Ray is no noob to VW circles. Dunno. Confused.

Www.abc.net.au/tv/collectors/segments/s2949572.htm

Stop the video at 3:28. The colour on the lower left of screen is what I see on my car. I'd love to be able to see this in real life.

yeah looks brown to me.

I just changed over my monitor 10+ year old dell today to a newish samsung, colors are definitely represented better now.

I've recently picked up a Manly Tan...

Had been sprayed brown at one point but I think I'm going to wet sand it down to the original paint after doing a test patch on the roof. Think it might come up alright after a bit of work

Phils dads license plate actually looked similar to mines too till I read it had been written off (original on mine was BUZ 588) bit hard to see in that pic too.

Ian

You can see Dad's number plates on that shot at high res (and on the original slide when it's blown up), but of course it had to be shrunk to fit on here. Dad's number plate was BTF-933.

Here is another shot of the car, this time the inside. Taken about 1964. You can see the Manly Tan dash. That's me standing on the seat.