Type 1 · Beetle & Cabriolet
Factory paint codes,
1949 to 1979
Every documented L-code we could source for the air-cooled Type 1 — 175 colours, 126 of them with an on-screen swatch. Search by code or by name, filter by era, and read the notes: several of these codes are printed differently by different sources, and we've flagged every one we found.
Pastel Green
CheckOften mis-copied as Texas Yellow. Texas Yellow is L10B (1972–73).
Medium Green
Reseda / Mignonette Green
CheckAppears both as a 1949–52 colour and again on 1959 sedans. Name given as Reseda, Mignonette, or Mignonette Green.
Atlantic Green
CheckAlso printed as “Atlantic Blue” in some databases; the factory name is a green.
Pearl Grey
Silver Grey
Dark Blue
Black
Coral Red
Bordeaux Red
Ivory
Yellow
Medium Brown
Beige
Brown Beige
Pearl White
CheckTwo published values for Pearl White — #cfc8b9 (chip-derived) and #e1e3da (lighter, cooler). Shown here: #cfc8b9. Unresolved.
Dove Blue
Azure Blue
CheckPrinted as both “Azure Blue” and “Azur”.
Medium Blue
Poppy Red
Maroon Red
Chestnut Brown
CheckPrinted as “Chestnut Brown” on sedans and “Dark Brown” on 1952 convertibles.
Parchment White
Sand Beige
CheckOften mis-copied as a white. It is a beige.
Jupiter Grey
CheckStart date disputed — listed as March 1953 by one source, 1952 by another.
Texas Brown
CheckSame end-month conflict as L213.
Sahara Beige
Metallic Blue
MetallicIceland Green
CheckVW's own factory records conflict on the end month — either 28 Feb or 1 Jul 1955.
Strato Silver
MetallicLight Beige
Ultramaroon
CheckSame end-month conflict as L213.
Iris Blue
MetallicReed Green
Jungle Green
Almond Green
Polar Silver
MetallicCheckPolar Silver is listed as L324 by one source and L234 by two others. Same name, two codes.
Nile Beige
Sepia Silver
MetallicAgave Green
Inca Red
Shetland Grey
Horizon Blue
Coral Red
Prairie Beige
Diamond Green
Bamboo
Glacier Blue
Atlas Blue
Alabaster
Diamond Grey
MetallicLight Bronze
Capri Blue
Kalahari Beige
Rush Green
Garnet Red
Fjord Blue
Yukon Yellow
Alaska White
Brunswick Blue
Rock Grey
Mango Green
Jade Green
Slate Blue
Arctic
Ceramic Green
Indigo Blue
Flint Grey
Sargasso Green
Indian Red
CheckPrinted as both “India Red” and “Indian Red”. Search both.
Paprika Red
Turquoise Green
Gulf Blue
Pastel Blue
Ruby Red
Beryl Green
Poppy Red
Pacific Blue
Anthracite
Sea Blue
Java Green
Bahama Blue
CheckBahama Blue also returns a modern VW navy (#213557) in colour databases. That is a later car, not L519.
Panama Beige
Fontana Grey
Sea Sand
Lotus White
CheckLotus White is L282 in one source; another lists L281 as “Grey-White”. Verify before ordering.
Savanna Beige
VW Blue
Zenith Blue
Royal Red
Delta Green
Chinchilla Grey
Diamond Blue
Elm Green
Cobalt Blue
Toga White
Clementine Orange
Deep Sea Green
Pastel White
Lemon Yellow
Shantung Gold
Iberian Red
Sapphire Blue
Marina Blue
Elm Green
Kansas Beige
Turquoise
MetallicSilver
MetallicGemini Blue
MetallicColorado Red
MetallicTexas Yellow
Saturn Yellow
Brilliant Orange
Blood Orange
Kasan Red
Enzian Blue
Sumatra Green
Willow Green
Sunshine Yellow
Amber Orange
Bahia Red
Phoenix Red
Olympic Blue
Biscay Blue
Zambesi Green
Ravenna Green
Light Ivory
Alaska Blue
MetallicMarathon Blue
MetallicMaya Gold
MetallicRallye Yellow
Senegal Red
Ibiza Red
Nothing matches that. Try the code without the L, or a single word of the colour name.
Why the grey. Colour samples are judged on a neutral mid-grey because a dark surround makes everything look lighter and more saturated than it is, and a bright one does the reverse. This ground is a true neutral at L* 53.6 — it pushes light and dark samples equally, so it pushes neither. Switch to Light when you're pinning down a near-black, and Dark when you're pinning down a pastel. The hairline around each swatch is there so the edge stays defined even when a colour sits at the same brightness as the ground.
Read this before you order paint
These swatches are not a paint match, and no swatch on any website is. They are sRGB conversions of scanned factory paint chips — one generation removed from the paint itself. Two people looking at this page on two different monitors are not seeing the same colour, and a 55-year-old panel has not stayed the colour it left Wolfsburg either.
The grey behind them is doing real work. Colour is judged relative to whatever surrounds it — put a sample on black and it reads lighter and more saturated, put it on white and it reads darker and duller. The swatch field above sits on a true neutral at L* 53.6, which is the standard ground for appraising colour precisely because it doesn't push the reading either way. Use the Light and Dark grounds to pin down the near-blacks and the pastels.
What they are good for: narrowing a shortlist. Telling Java Green from Beryl Green. Confirming that the code you found stamped on your car is plausible for its year before you spend money. Order real chips from a paint supplier before you spray anything.
Where a swatch is missing, that is deliberate. Roughly forty documented colours — nearly all of them mid-to-late-1970s metallics — have a factory name and code but no published colour value we could source. We left those blank and listed them by name rather than invent a value. A flat rectangle cannot honestly represent a metallic anyway, which is why every metallic here carries a tag.
Codes marked “Check” disagree between sources. Two names for one code, two codes for one name, or a year range that VW's own records contradict. We've printed the disagreement rather than picking a side — if you're chasing originality, both spellings are worth searching.
Compiled from published factory colour references and cross-checked across several independent restoration sources, including TheSamba's colour archive, Wolfsburg West's colour charts, pre67vw, and paint cross-reference databases. Names, codes and years are factory reference data. Found an error? Call the shop — we'd rather fix it than leave it wrong.
Documented by name only
These codes are real and appear in factory references, but we could not source a colour value for them. Listed here so the record is complete — a missing swatch is honest, a made-up one is not.
- L251 Copper Red
- L281 Grey-White
- L289 Blue White
- L311 Sand Green
- L318 Deep Green
- L320 Dolphin Grey Light
- L322 Silver Granite
- L330 Trout Blue
- L345 Light Grey
- L472 Beige Grey
- L512 Velvet Green
- L567 Ivory
- L650 Granada Red
- L20A Marino Yellow
- L50K Neptune Blue
- L53H Orient Blue
- L62H Bali Yellow
- L63H Taiga Green
- L86Z Agate Brown
Late metallics — name only
The 1974–79 metallic range is the thinnest-documented part of the whole system, and it is also the part a flat swatch would misrepresent worst. If you're chasing one of these, bring us the car.
- L226 Metallic Silver Grey · metallic
- L234 Polar Silver · metallic
- L86V Agate Brown · metallic
- L89P Brown · metallic
- L95C Moss Green · metallic
- L96N Viper Green II · metallic
- L96Y Malachite · metallic
- L97A Diamond Silver · metallic
- L97B Ancona Blue · metallic
- L97C Red · metallic
- L97G Gold · metallic
- L97Y Tizian · metallic
- L98B Viper Green I · metallic
- L98C Hellas Gold · metallic
- L98D Brown · metallic
- L98Y Atlantic Blue · metallic
- L99A Saturn Yellow · metallic
- L99B Hellas 75 · metallic
- L99D Topaz · metallic
- L99E Quartz · metallic
- L99K Tombac Brown · metallic
- L99M Ischia Green · metallic
- L99N Silver Green · metallic
Next on the bench
A paint code on its own only tells you so much. These read the rest of the car.
Chassis Number Decoder
Confirm the model year first. If the code you found doesn't fit the year, one of the two is wrong.
Decode a chassis number →Beetle M-Code Decoder
The option codes stamped alongside the paint code — what the factory actually fitted, 162 codes deep.
Read your M-plate →Bus M-Plate Decoder
Reads the whole plate the way it's stamped, and redraws it on screen as you type. Type 2, 1959–79.
Open the plate reader →Install Guides
Written procedures for the jobs that come after the paint — panels, tunnels, beams, glass.
The full library →Not sure what you're looking at?
Send us a photo of the plate. We've read a few thousand of them, and we'd rather you got it right the first time.