WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?

[PxTx]

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.






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.



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



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



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 "as is" I might just try and match that. Otherwise paint them all to match. You can't go wrong with anything you do to them.

[PxTx]

Dan asked in a recent "for sale" 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.

[PxTx]

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!

[Mr70]

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

[Mayhem]

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

[PxTx]

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.



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.



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

[GotGrunt]

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???