lubu,

Working out what some of these graffitoes say is one thing ( and, as we know, many of these Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana characters can be read in several different ways even when they are legible.... ), but working out what they actually mean or signify is quite another.

As I believe I have mentioned, I would feel much more comfortable if a native Japanese reader / speaker with knowledge of old cars could add their opinion to the discussion. I have looked at scribbles such as these with Japanese car friends present, and most often I have been advised to accept that many of them will only have meant something specific to the person whom originally wrote them. We are on the outside looking in, and perhaps we are expecting too much if we think that we can make sense of them.......

There are scribbles / markings / stamps etc on the cars that do mean something specific, and can be understood. The under dash chalk marks on certain cars can identify market variations and sub models. There are steering column support bracket scribbles that can help to identify certain specs, but not all of them are seen on every car. Some of these things are apparently 'notes' or memos between workers and/or departments.

It would be great to get into more discussion about these markings, and indeed to see more and more examples of them so we have more to go on, but I'd urge caution in taking their translated meanings too literally. For example, something that reads as 'chikara' does not seem to have any logical meaning in relation to the component that it appears on, and quite possibly it was never meant to.

Alan T.

I'm taking my dash to be recovered next week and thought I'd flip it over just to check and sure enough

My '73 has a character under the steering column support as well, but it looks totally different from the others posted above. If anyone can translate this it would be much appreciated.

My '73 has a character under the steering column support as well, but it looks totally different from the others posted above. If anyone can translate this it would be much appreciated.

Translated to the number "34"

Thanks, Konish!

Translated to the number "34"

Yes, it reads as "San-Ju Yon". Literally 'Three Ten four', meaning 'Thirty Four' in English.

No idea what it relates to I'm afraid. Like all of these graffitoes, they seem to have meant something only to the guys building up the dashes and the cars......

I'm taking my dash to be recovered next week and thought I'd flip it over just to check and sure enough

A bit late ( sorry, didn't see it when you originally posted it ) but this looks like the Hiragana ( simplified Kanji ) symbol 'Chi'. And - in common with some of the other examples - it looks a little bit unnaturally written. Kind of like if it were written by somebody who was stretching his arm up under a dash....

It kind of ties in with previous examples possibly reading as 'Chikara'. Could this Hiragana 'Chi' signify the same thing as the Kanji 'Chikara', but simply abbreviated, and written by a different person and/or at a different time...?

If we had enough examples, we might even start to see a pattern emerging.

If we had enough examples, we might even start to see a pattern emerging.

Alan: here are a few more examples

Dan

3, 27 are the first two.

Would it be possible that these numbers might represent production line numbers for a week, or month?

I found this red writing on the right side dash support area of my white car (HLS30-00210). The same location where a red number "58" was written on my HLS30-00032's dash.

Also, I went to check on the progress of the body repair and paint preprep for the white car yesterday. The painter showed me that "No. 3" was written on the top of the inner fender. There was also what looked like several Japanese words written on the exterior of the top part of the passenger door. The door is stripped of all paint and primer, so this must have been written on the bare metal before it was primed. Unfortunately, I was in a hurry and left my camera at home, so no pictures of that yet. I asked the paint guy to take a couple for me, but he is a better painter than photographer, so we'll see if that happens or not. I may drop by again next weekend to take some pictures myself.

-Mike

I found some pictures on my camera that I had taken of some kanji on the dash which is the usual place but also some on the frame for the small side windows. Thought I would add to the collection.

carl