Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Here is a pretty good reference photo of some NMW stuff. 67-68 Camaro tabs (both sets are sold by the way) in both orange and yellow. A pair of universal tabs in orange. And a tow bar in orange (still have).

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbthrea...6281#Post446281

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

I am not arguing that they could have been any color. I am looking for opinions on which ones were the 1st to be produced, and when they started to offer them.

For example, did the tb9 start in 1968 or 1970 or ????

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

What year did the company start selling towing equipment?

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

A kind thank you extended to Matt for the tip and sale of these puppies... Very excited for a pair of '69 NMW Camaro Tow Tabs on my Z28!

Thank you Matt!

Dan

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6/DSC08606.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...6/DSC08607.jpg

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Glad you snagged a set Dan.Are you going to keep 'em orange?

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Thanks, Bill. Right back at you! What color are you going with?

I'm going to clean them and keep them orange. I like the patina look.

Dan

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

This color... http://www.classicperformance.com/ebay_pics/tabs.jpg

Mine WERE original paint, before I blasted 'em ...I sprayed some John Deere Yellow on one and the match was EXACT.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

I took a close look at my TB30's and they were silver under the black paint.



Tommy [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Took the oppurtunity at the MCACN show to get a good look at the RG 69 Motion Camaro wiht the &quot;fabricated tow tabs&quot; and even spoke to Joel about them.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...s/DSCN3102.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...ACN2011044.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...ACN2011037.jpg

Just like many racing parts, the final fit and finish is up to the end user. Black is just as appropriate as any other color.

To help figure out when NMW began making chassis specific tabs, I present the following from the RG Camaro, I would be interested to hear some opinions.

The 1967/68 tabs part number TB9 look like this:
http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...20Tabs/TB9.jpg

I seem to see some familiar elements in the RG car.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...s/DSCN3123.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...ACN2011052.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...CN2011054m.jpg

They may have used, 69 Camaro tabs or 67/68 ones but neither will fit a Camaro with an Endura bumper.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

I love that handy work in the old days. Bottom line......they worked!

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Good info. Consensus was the the tow bar was locally fabricated. It was VERY heavy as I repositioned it a couple of times.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Sure, that thing wouldn't ship too well either like the popular NMW one. Joel thinks they bought the tow hubs and tabs from NMW at the same time. Then had to do the fab to get them to work. I should have asked about the bar, but I didn't. Prior to it being chromed, it was clear that it was locally made one-off.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Here is another interesting one. Original owner (Lud) BM Camaro. Spoke to Lud about the car. It is very original, but the tow tabs were built and installed by Lud, less than 3 months after owning the car!

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...ACN2011021.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...ACN2011027.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...ACN2011025.jpg

So often we hear storied of things being a certain way when new. Lud was pretty cool telling how the car was actually a lot faster than he 1st expected. Quickly learned that the street racing he thought he wanted to do proved to be too dangerous with a car like this. Tow tabs went on. Car went to the race track. Joel delived the performace and Lud delived as a driver. Simple recipe for a whinner!

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...ACN2011020.jpg

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

I thought this is interesting. Here is a TB3 which is numerically the lowest part number NMW lists. Basically they have the TB3 for 56-62 Corvette, then the next is TB9 for 1967/8 Camaro, then UTB12 for the Universal and back to TB13 for 68 GTO.

I would love to know which tab NMW made 1st and when. I've read some of the speculation on the net. Not sure I agree.

The final finish on the edges of the TB3 do seem to be slightly different, with rounded corners of bolt tabs and such. I wonder if later TB3 look any different? I know there are ealry and late design TB30's.

TB3 is my dad's and the sticker is an eBay repop.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

my nos 67 tabs are painted silver. Tow bar is also silver. I am going to paint mine orange or yellow. I don't want people at shows knocking their leg against them. Roger

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Do you know when your items were manufactured? I would love to see pictures of the silver tow bar before you paint it. Is it even assembled if it is NOS? What does the box look like? Thanks!

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

So, I finished mocking up my set of toe tabs on the 69, the interior color of the car is red. My thought was painting the tabs red to kind of bring the inside of the car out, any thoughts?

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

John, these looks great in RED on you car. Nice choice and matches the red gut nicely!

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h3...x/DSC00750.jpg

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

From 1972 looks like Lakewood was offering their bar.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...d4618d98_z.jpg

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Thanks Paul for the compliments

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Just giving this another poke after seeing what Rich did with a set of tow tabs and some NMW decals. I think he may have just started a new trend on &quot;What Color Should My Tow Tabs Be?&quot;

[quote=Mr. Chevy]Installed some tow tabs on the Nova.....

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...icture5717.jpg

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...icture5718.jpg

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...icture5719.jpg

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...opics/493753/1

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Tow tabs in the day were made in a garage by a guy who did not have $235.00 for a trailer.. chrome tow bars perfect tabs powder coated did not exist.... In the day it was a necessity to get to the race.... today seems to be a bit more like a fasion statement... I say paint em pink with rhinestones..

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

You're right man. Just like Bias ply tires, tunnel ram, and non-overdrive manual transmissions, vintage gauges and on and on.

I'm sure some guys may have been able to afford a trailer but chose to flat tow because they didn't have the space to store a trailer, or several other good reasons. Ones with patina are really in demand.

Thanks for the kind words on them being perfect [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: beater68427</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Tow tabs in the day were made in a garage by a guy who did not have $235.00 for a trailer.. chrome tow bars perfect tabs powder coated did not exist.... In the day it was a necessity to get to the race.... today seems to be a bit more like a fasion statement... I say paint em pink with rhinestones.. </div></div>

Dead on! I'm glad someone finally said this. Tow tabs in &quot;the day&quot; were not jewelry. No one was proud of them. They generally signified that you couldn't afford a trailer. If you had them, the were used. Therefore, they were beat up or generally home made.

JMHO
ND

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

So I guess from that logic, we all should put a couple dents in our restored cars, take the fresh paint out of the engine compartment, and put a few rips and tears in our re-upholstered seats.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

As to TB color I go with black. I always go with what was popular in the day to be correct. I always refer back to those NY based mags of the 70's.Street Racer, Street Power etc which seemed like very car of the day used tabs (they were all NY based cars) and 95% were painted black. The next most popular color was white and a handful in chrome for the show cars

Never saw any of them in any other color that I can remember but being these cars are modified the greatness of this is you can paint them any color you choose and nothing is wrong..

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: wheelhop</div><div class="ubbcode-body">So I guess from that logic, we all should put a couple dents in our restored cars, take the fresh paint out of the engine compartment, and put a few rips and tears in our re-upholstered seats. </div></div>
No sir. I was simply applying logic to tow tabs. Interiors and paint jobs are discussed in other threads.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

N.Y. based 70's street racers,only looked at who was Winning and Money.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

I thought this was pretty cool. I've questioned in the past when did NMW transition from the generic tow tabs to the chassis specific ones. Here is a September 1969 article which features NMW TB28 tow tabs for a 1966-1968 Mustang.

Anyone know or feel differently about items such as early Corvette TB3 and 1967/68 Camaro TB9 <span style="font-weight: bold">NOT</span> being manufactured before the TB28s? I would guess that publishing in 1969 usually meant you actually had the magazine layout done about 3 months prior to print. I am comfortable with the idea that chassis specific tabs were around by early 1969. Maybe some of those early Part Numbers were even out in 1968! They look pretty darn nice too!

One other thing, anyone have one of those cool &quot;Super Street Cars&quot; Magazine decals for sale?

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...hubarticle.jpg

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

I have a pair of 67-68 tabs for my 1967 Mustang Fastback. I haven't installed them yet but will update when I do.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

I picked up these TB-13 tabs recently. I recall seeing a set of tabs in blue, and with the 1969 Catalog featuring the blue color theme, I thought that may have been an original color for them. These TB-13 turned out to have been originally silver in color.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps6hrcvqfz.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...blue15x375.jpg


These still have the BIS for Bethlehem Steel on the bolts! I think it is kinda neat they have hung around together all these years. FYI, the TB-13 are for 1968 GTO.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps5qdbfj7y.jpg

Here they are next to some TB-9 tabs for 67/68 Camaro. I think the silver color on these is original.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...psuitelxcz.jpg

Interesting the rounded tab is so much smaller between the two.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...psi7ghvfmc.jpg

So these TB-13 tabs were originally silver. They were painted blue with overspray and such on the bolts. Though there seems to have been a few colors NMW painted their tabs, I stand by my opinion that there is no wrong color for them. Many of the end user's painted them to suite the theme of their car.

To be honest, there is a part of me that likes the tabs and bar to match in color. If you have a bar that is nice enough &quot;as is&quot; I might just try and match that. Otherwise paint them all to match. You can't go wrong with anything you do to them.

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Dan asked in a recent &quot;for sale&quot; post about what these pins look like for reference. I've never run across the 1st generation pins, like in the article above, but here are the very popular BIS (Bethlehem Steel) pins for reference.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...pso0w634qn.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...pskhagdhgf.jpg

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...psyshqlsyz.jpg

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

WOW! I had emailed the seller but never heard back. I was curious if they were BIS logo pins or other. Really neat to see them still new!

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...psvvciotdd.png




http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...sxvizzsat.jpeg

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

Paul
That's JoeC selling those,who's a member here on sYc.
Extremely knowledgeable in YENKO dealership &amp; speed parts in general.
He was just on here this AM.
Contact info:
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt.../users/11/JoeC

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

$200 for pins and clips? WOW.
Or is there more to this ad? Surely tabs, or bar, or something?

Re: WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?
 

I recently saw a fellow selling these bars on ebay. I thought he did a good job with pics that shows the subtle differences between an NMW bar and a Lakewood. They both started with an Ideal brand tow latch.

Note how NMW used individual bolts to attache the Ideal latch.
alsi, the wide bar has a slightly different attaching design.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...spijn7m8t.jpeg

This Lakewood bar uses through bolts and spacers at the latch. I also dig the Lakewood logo decal. I love it when I find an NMW with a nice logo decal- though they are rare.
http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...sucsluqkf.jpeg


Here are the Lakewood style pins included with the Lakewood bar.

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/w...sv0ukmoqg.jpeg

Resurrecting an old thread here but have some questions regarding a pair of TB30 tabs I personally pulled off an old race car that was parked a long time ago. They were painted black but I can see the original silver paint in some areas indicating they are an earlier design. I took a few pics comparing them to another pair of TB30 tabs I have which are NOS, originally red but someone painted them silver. The mounting flange dimensions are the same as well as the overall length of the tab, but the earlier ones are definitely much beefier. I’ve had a whole bunch of different TB30 tabs over the years, including a pair that had a curved mounting flange with a plug weld (included a photo of that pair as well) but none that were this thick.

Anyone else have a pair like this???