5 minutes ago, Jason240z said:

could you have requested any colour out of the catalogue then Alan?

Everything I've heard - having talked to several people who worked for Datsun UK at the time - points to there being very little actual choice when customers were ordering HS30s in advance. It seems that, for most dealerships, cars were turning up from Japan and were distributed with a 'luck of the draw' on body colour. The customer would only be able to choose to state a preference, and then choose from what came into stock. Some of the bigger dealerships had more cars and therefore more colour choice per batch. Interior colours were fixed by exterior colours. I've only ever seen Brown interiors in a couple of UK market HS30s, and they were both #907 Green exterior colour.

One of the ex salesmen for a reasonably large Datsun UK dealership told me that he'd had more than one potential customer give up on buying an HS30 because it took too long to get them what they wanted in terms of body colour. 

4 hours ago, HS30-H said:

Everything I've heard - having talked to several people who worked for Datsun UK at the time - points to there being very little actual choice when customers were ordering HS30s in advance. It seems that, for most dealerships, cars were turning up from Japan and were distributed with a 'luck of the draw' on body colour. The customer would only be able to choose to state a preference, and then choose from what came into stock. Some of the bigger dealerships had more cars and therefore more colour choice per batch. Interior colours were fixed by exterior colours. I've only ever seen Brown interiors in a couple of UK market HS30s, and they were both #907 Green exterior colour.

One of the ex salesmen for a reasonably large Datsun UK dealership told me that he'd had more than one potential customer give up on buying an HS30 because it took too long to get them what they wanted in terms of body colour. 

with my chosen 918 its only really black that suits, or those Ikeda Bussan race seats in the blue/grey.

These seem to be similar to Alan's swatches:

 

 

7 hours ago, HS30-H said:

cars were turning up from Japan and were distributed with a 'luck of the draw' on body colour. The customer would only be able to choose to state a preference, and then choose from what came into stock. Some of the bigger dealerships had more cars and therefore more colour choice per batch. Interior colours were fixed by exterior colours. I've only ever seen Brown interiors in a couple of UK market HS30s, and they were both #907 Green exterior colour. 

I concur, only seen one brown interior on a UK market HS30, many years ago. And the "choice" (lack of) other interior colours on the RS30 carried onto the UK cars too.  Mine must of been one of the few that originally came with blue seats (to go with metallic blue exterior paint), which were swapped out just before I brought it (and sold the seats on). Hindsight is wonderful.

I owned a  Feb. 1980 first registered RS30 (build date was around late 1977 if I recall) and I think it sat at the UK dealers for that long because it was a sick tan/yellow colour, and nobody wanted it. I haven't seen the colour on any othe RS30. We were poorly served by Nissan UK then.

17 hours ago, 240dkw said:

Is it the rubber mat material that was used on the early cars instead of carpet?

Hi 240dkw , the rubber mat material is different from the brown one which can be seen in Mr . Sudo’s factory. 

Kats

Edited April 24, 20195 yr by kats

21 hours ago, kats said:

Thanks Mike , it is a great help . Don’t you think the parts number is something wrong , do you ? Please see my corrections. 

Anyway , the number E4103 is for the “ brown “ seats , and this doesn’t mean either the one which is kept by Mr. Sudo or the one can be seen in the test car . We actually have the tan seats as “ brown “  E4103  , don’t we ? 

Jason240z , I am so glad that you said that to me ! 

Kats

Hi Kats,

It looks like the numbers shown in the table are correct.  Not sure why the numbering was different on the early RH seats.  One of my parts books came from Nissan USA's HQ and has hand written notes when the part numbers changed or when parts were NLA.  Also included a picture of the page with the vinyl swatches that includes the blue vinyl. 

Thank you everyone , I appreciate those valuable inputs. 

Kats,

It looks like the numbers shown in the table are correct.  Not sure why the numbering was different on the early RH seats. 

Mike , as I am looking at the numbers you showed here ,  I was wrong about my correction for the part numbers of the RHD seats . 

Now I have a big question, “ what  is different between them ? “ 

If  “ COMP SEAT “ means the seat includes the seat rails , and plastic spacers and plastic nuts , those things would make the difference between JDM and Export models. But I don’t think that happens...

By the way, my 03/ 1970 HLS30 , I realized the RHD seat doesn’t slide fully backwards , is this for Export LHD models ? Or just the seat rails doesn’t work properly? 

My Z432 and 240ZG have a RHD seat which can be adjusted with a sliding mechanism fully backwards, of  course.

Kats

Edited April 26, 20195 yr by kats

30 minutes ago, kats said:

Now I have a big question, “ what  is different between them ? “ 

If  “ COMP SEAT “ means the seat includes the seat rails , and plastic spacers and plastic nuts , those things would make the difference between JDM and Export models. But I don’t think that happens...

By the way, my 03/ 1970 HLS30 , I realized the RHD seat doesn’t slide fully backwards , is this for Export LHD models ? Or just the seat rails doesn’t work properly? 

My Z432 and 240ZG have a RHD seat which can be adjusted with a sliding mechanism fully backwards, of  course.

Kats,

I think a lot of people here will not know that two types of seat were available in the Japanese market from the beginning of production. We could call them 'Standard' and 'Deluxe', corresponding with the models that they were originally fitted to. S30-S 'Standard' model received seats that did not have the 'flip forward' handle, but S30 and PS30 models were 'Deluxe' models and did have the 'flip forward' handle for the seat backs.

I noticed on my 4/70 HLS30U that it did not have the 'flip forward' handles on the seats. As far as I can see, the early Export market cars got the 'Standard' seats.

 

All 1970 cars I have seen just have the round knob for back tilt. There was no flip forward lever.

 

Here is one with the knob on the outside.

23 minutes ago, 240260280 said:

All 1970 cars I have seen just have the round knob for back tilt. There was no flip forward lever.
 

Only on export cars.  As Alan noted, Japanese Market Z-L and Z-432 models had the levers to tilt the seat back that we didn't get until 1972.

 

1 hour ago, HS30-H said:

Kats,

I think a lot of people here will not know that two types of seat were available in the Japanese market from the beginning of production. We could call them 'Standard' and 'Deluxe', corresponding with the models that they were originally fitted to. S30-S 'Standard' model received seats that did not have the 'flip forward' handle, but S30 and PS30 models were 'Deluxe' models and did have the 'flip forward' handle for the seat backs.

I noticed on my 4/70 HLS30U that it did not have the 'flip forward' handles on the seats. As far as I can see, the early Export market cars got the 'Standard' seats.

 

Thanks Alan , that is what I too would like to introduce everyone outside Japan , and even more , I want to emphasize this , the first Japanese market S30 reclining seats (10/69 to 01/71 ) don’t flip forward . So there is a difference in the seat reclining mechanism cover . The earlier one has a wide tab , on the other hand , the later one has a narrow tab . This difference comes from the travel amount of the seat back supports . 

Thanks Blue , the seats is swapped from the other one , this is what I need to do for my restored seats , because I don’t want to make them old ! 

Kats

Thanks Mike , nice owner’s manual for Fairlady Z series!

Kats