Can anyone read Japanese out there? (Alan).

The attached pic shows a sticker on the reverse side of an interior plastic trim panel from my '73 240Z. I have removed all of the interior panels and every one has a similar sticker - I can only assume they are a form of factory Quality Assurance approval? Can anyone confirm this?

Another interesting point... The reverse side of this panel is Red in colour but the exposed side (visible in the cabin) is Tan. I'm guessing a previous owner has replaced the panel with a non-original coloured one (from another car?) and painted it to match...Or maybe that was done on the production line too..?

Thanks Hayden,

I have a collection of these and this is a new one for me. It does not match my usual "ken" markings. They all seem to be made with a rubber stamp. I also looked for something in my reference of Japanese language and can't find anything matching. Very interesting! Did you say they were on all of your interior panels and all the same?

The sticker appears to have been placed over the red coloring and beneath the glue for the foam padding indicating it is original and also indicating the red color is original. I can confirm that the foam is similar to typical production padding material.

Alan would certainly be of help!

Call me a 'heathen westerner' but all of the stickers look the same to me . I'll take a closer look but I'm certain the characters are identical on all pieces.

All of my panels are Tan on the exposed side and most are Tan on the hidden side too. Two, however are Red, and also contain the 'Q/A' sticker. I do not doubt that the stickers are original. My question is: would the factory have fitted Tan as well as Red-painted-Tan panels to a Tan interior car? Or were these two panels most likely replaced in the ensuing thirty years...?

Hi Halz,

This question is an interesting one, and so far - despite asking many people who I thought would know - I've never really got a comprehensive and fully satisfactory answer.

First of all, the stickers on the back of your plastic interior panels are indeed fairly common. I've seen them umpteen times, and they are usually still there unless they have fallen off due to age / damp / dessication or whatever. HOWEVER, I have also taken panels out of cars where the sticker was not present, and appears never to have been attached in the first place. When you know what the sticker says, it makes it even more of a mystery:

It actually says "Nan".

Now, Japanese kanji characters are not always directly-translateable into western language. Just like the Chinese characters that they derive from, they are 'ideograms'. That means that a native speaker / reader 'sees' them, and understands what they mean, in a quite different way to the way that we read the English on this page. I won't bore you with the ins and outs of this, but suffice to say that many times it means that proper translation only approximates the true significance.

"Nan" signifies a problem or difficulty. This "Nan" kanji character is normally used in conjunction with at least one other kanji character in order to make a full 'word'. In the case of this sticker, the character is enclosed in a circle - which signifies that it is a stylistic representation of a Japanese 'Hanko' stamp. Anyone used to Japanese documentation will understand and be quite familiar with Hanko stamps.

Since "Nan" has an essentially negative meaning, one would have to surmise that the panels receiving this sticker were sub-standard in some way. However, as we know, they were still used on some cars. In fact, they were used on a lot of cars! In this case, I wondered if they might have needed some extra work or fettling to put them right before they were used. I wonder if this is edging closer to the truth?

I too have seen different colours on the reverse side of some interior plastic panels. In every case that *I* have seen this, the visible colour on the car was black. I wondered if panels that were moulded in certain colours were more difficult to make consistently, and some of the coloured panels that were not good enough to use were then set aside to be sprayed black, and joined the originally-black mouldings on the biggest pile?

The panels look to have been injection moulded to me. I wondered if they might have had a run of 'rejects' between plastic colour changes ( they would usually have kept an injection mould hot and running when changing plastic colours ) that needed to be resprayed. Anyone familiar with plastic mouldings will understand this kind of situation.

Anyway, that's all I have on the subject. I don't even know what company manufactured these for Nissan - otherwise we could ask them!

Cheers,

Alan T.

So, these "sub-standard" panels that have the mystery sticker on them, do we know if they are a random thing? Are they only on the later zs? As in maybe they kept all the sprayed panels to last to fit?

Weird.

Luke

I too have seen different colours on the reverse side of some interior plastic panels. In every case that *I* have seen this, the visible colour on the car was black.

Here's some more evidence to support that theory. This panel was originally white but later dyed black. Alan, how would you translate this one? Thanks.

That's the same one, Mike. Perhaps a different piece of paper. This discussion is particularly interesting to me as all of my butterscotch interior panels do not have anything like this. Thanks, as always, Alan for a particularly interesting answer. I would like to hear more about the meaning of the circle (ring) around the letters. What is most provocative is the idea that a "Nan" label would be printed for such a use rather than the notice hand lettered on the part. Further, that the label would remain when the part was placed into service.

That's the same one, Mike.

You're right, of course. I don't know what made me think it was different. I should have been more careful.

:stupid:

I would like to hear more about the meaning of the circle (ring) around the letters.

Christopher,

I don't want to lead you up the garden path into thinking this has any particular extra significance in the automotive field. If you look into Japanese "Hanko" or "Inkan" stamps, you will see that they have traditionally featured Kanji 'letters' enclosed by a circle or a square. Think of a Japanese ( or Chinese ) "Kakejiku" hanging banner - often featuring some "Shuji" calligraphy and a drawing or painting - which are often marked with the Hanko or Inkan of the artist. You can see it on porcelain or any other number of Japanese and Chinese objects.

Japanese people - when 'signing' important, or legal, documents - are often called upon to do so with their personal "Hanko". It means much more than a handwritten signature in Japanese culture.

The "Nan" sticker really only imitates this officiality in its style. I think its a fairly typical bit of Japanese bureaucracy from 30-something years ago. We shouldn't read TOO much into its styling I think.....

As to why it was still present when the item in question was fettled or 'repaired' ( we mustn't forget that we are groping in the dark here ) - well, I think sometimes we tend to think that the Japanese have always been super-efficient and did everything by the book and to the letter. It can be shocking for some people that this was - and indeed still is - not necessarily so! Having lived in Japan, worked in a typical Japanese office environment, and visited many factories, workshops and warehouses, I can tell you that they can sometimes be a real mess!

My point being that with Nissan trying to keep up with demand for the Z car, and Nissan's outside suppliers sometimes feeling the pinch more than Nissan themselves, we should not be too surprised that corners were slightly cut or that items initially graded substandard but saveable actually made it onto completed and "OK" stickered cars.......

Anyway, we still don't know if the "Nan" stickers were applied by Nissan themselves ( possibly on receipt of the items from their supplier ) or the supplier / manufacturer.

In the case of your car Christopher, I'd wonder whether this was a case where - being so early in production as to almost qualify as being "pre-production" - every effort was being made to get it right the first time. I can imagine that pressure on outside suppliers would be very high at the point where a new model was being released.

What with instances of 'good' coloured panels not often having the "Nan" sticker, but with a fair few instances of what seem to be re-coloured panels having the sticker present, I'm leaning towards this being related to colour-quality control at the moulding stage. That's the way I'm thinking about it anyway.

Cheers,

Alan T.

Once the changes were made to the parts, it probably didn't matter to remove the identification sticker and more of a hassle, just get it back out into the production line.

So Alan, did you get a personalized Hanko stamp for your name? If so what Kanji did you choose?

So Alan, did you get a personalized Hanko stamp for your name? If so what Kanji did you choose?

Hi Craig,

Not telling! ( Just like Katakana, its pretty-much impossible to get it to sound right ).

I did get one made up in Romaji, which I was assured would be legally acceptable.

I agree with you about the stickers. I doubt that they could be bothered to waste time removing them. Much more likely to be '****-up' rather than 'conspiracy' I reckon.

Cheers,

Alan T.

Not Telling? What?

Okay here's mine if I can remember. I'll have to look up those characters again to be sure.

SLAPE

SUREIPU

SU= Subarashi = Great

REI= Spirit or Devine

PU= Kazi or Wind

The- Great Devine Wind

: