WHAT COLOR SHOULD MY TOW TABS BE?

[BJCHEV396]

Just bought a used pair of NMW tow tabs for my 1970 Nova.What color would they have been new?Thanks.Bill.

[Fast67VelleN2O]

Orange.

[JRSully]

My NOS in the box NMW Nova tabs were/are yellow

[BJCHEV396]

Seeing the tabs on your Nova Sully made me want a set.Do you get a lot of comments about them?Bill.

[JRSully]

All the time Bill, kinda feel like taking them off somtimes, putting the set of SS wheels on and blinging the old beast up a bit, who knows. They are a conversation piece though

[John Brown]

I've seen dull silver ones.

[PxTx]

Jim, the blue and yellow contrast really makes those NMW tabs stand out, and I love the look on your car. It really is funny to hear some of the reactions you get at the car shows (speaking from all the comments I hear about them on the cars my family owns). I think hanging a tow bar on the front helps people to understand.

Jim, hope you don't mind me posting some of your pics.





From what I've been told from people who saw, handled, installed and built them when these cars were new it seems the very early ones were silver- I'm guessing late 1969.



They then started to use yellow as you can see on Sully's car. The yellow was supposed to equally short lived. I beleive it was used probably not more than a year or so. Whitetop had mentioned that there was some issue with Lakewood asking them to change the color or something to that effect, but I've only heard this on the net.

As a side note, I've heard that Lakwood offered free-wheeling tow hubs, tow bars and such but I just have never seen them myself. I've also heard that Lakewood sold tow tabs. Can anyone validate this? Any old catalogs or pictures?

By 1971 NMW seemed to try and stick with an orange theme. These are tabs I have which are NOS.




I've seen a few shades of orange, and when I spoke to the fellow who owned NMW, he said they would buy orange paint in large volume. Sometimes the paint supplier would run out of their color and he would buy whatever was available. I'm sure he didn't want to leave the metal bare for very long.

Ths fellow bought NMW around 1974 I think he said, and didn't have much to offer about the company before then. I've debated when they started making chassis specific tow tabs with a few people. I beleive they were offering them from the beginning of 1969 at least. Can anyone validate this?

I guess the answer to your question kinda depends on when you think they were new? Usually there is a hint of color in the areas near where a washer was used on a bolt hole. Got any clue's there? I'm guessing you were the lucky fellow to win the set on ebay the other day, so maybe you don't have them in hand yet. Congratulations if you did win them!



I personally would paint them any color you want. It doesn't seem unusual in all of these old pics of cars with tabs for guys to have painted them before they installed them.

Nova Jed thought the yelow looked the best too.

[PxTx]

I'll probably paint mine black when I put them on my chevelle, or I was even thinking about having them chromed. I don't think you can go wrong whatever color you choose.





I also suspect that Joel ordered tabs for a 69 Camaro, not knowing that they don't work on the Endura bumper, and then modified them with a large angle iron bracket and cut down the large top plate since it no longer attached to the bumper. They fogged them black after those mods.

[Mr. Chevy]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: BJCHEV396</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Just bought a used pair of NMW tow tabs for my 1970 Nova.What color would they have been new?Thanks.Bill. </div></div>

Bill, did you just win those recently on e-bay?? I am looking for a pair of Nova tow tabs for 68-72 if anyone has a set they want to part with...

Rich

[C1SS396]

This is a untouched bar tabs(early 67/68 camaro) and hubs ...