Mysterious stamp on top of gas tank

[Mikes Z car]

Hi all,

I noticed a stamp on the top of my 240 gas tank as I was cleaning the exterior. Anyone seen one of these before? I assume it is just an inspection stamp. Looks like it says 45 1.98 with a katakana alphabet character above that?

Mike

Stamp location:

Stamp:

[Mike B]

Yes, I think all of my tanks have that stamp. It's just the inspection/manufacturing date code. There are many other such stamps and date codes on other parts of the car that indicate when the various components were made. Search for 'date codes' or 'date stamps' or 'tanks stamps' in this case and you will find lots of old threads about this. The date on yours is sometime in January 1970. 45 is the Showa date for 1970, 1 is for January and the blurred two digit coded at the end is the day of the month, which would have been 1 to 31, so 98 is obviously not correct.

-Mike

Edited May 20, 2012 by Mike B

[jerz]

Here is a different configuration on a later tank

[Bonzi Lon]

Here is one of the threads I made upon my discovery of these stamps. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread21432.html

Bonzi Lon

[jerz]

Thanks Bonzi Lon,

I was expecting the date stamp on the tank I have to incorporate a number from "49" to "52", being 1975 to 1977. I have noticed the mysterious "S" on some other parts too, including hand painted on a NOS R200 (not mine) differential in white paint.

[Mikes Z car]

Mike,

Thanks for the information, I didn't know what the label meant other than guessing it might be an inspection label.

I searched on tank label before posting and there was a very long listing, I think by the time I decided I was looking at a stamp not a label I forgot to go back and search using the word stamp. I just tried stamp for searching and got better results.

jerz,

Interesting that they changed the label like that.

Bonzi Lon,

Thanks for the thread link.

Mike