Horn pads - the differences in Japan (need help)

[florian]

Hello together!
I would like to introduce myself a little at the beginning - even though I have been a silent reader here for many years. I think it's great what knowledge and helpfulness is here and I would like to contribute a little.

My name is Florian, I'm from Germany and have owned my first Z for 14 years. I have been infected with the Datsun virus since birth, as my family has been driving Datsuns since the 1970s. It all started with the Cherry E10, the F2, Sunny etc....

Until last year I had a 240Z, a 260Z and a 280Z. But now I only have the 260Z and the 240Z, and a Cherry E10 van.

Out of this love for this brand, I founded the Instagram channel "Datsun Autowerk" (http://instagram.com/datsun.autowerk/), on which I try to bring as many exciting details as possible to the fans of these wonderful cars closer and would like to tell the one or other story that hardly anyone knows.

 

 

My current topic is about the Japanese horn pads, which have changed very often. Unfortunately, however, I can hardly find well recognizable original documents from which a real system comes out and I would like to ask if you know accurate details of it.

I have already documented the following things and I hope that with your help I can close the open gaps.

 

The first "series 1" cars with L20 engine have a Z on the horn with a blue background. 

 

 

The Z432 (not the R), on the other hand, had a white Z with a red background.

 

 

 

But from the so-called series 2 from 71 (here ZLS30/ZS30S/HS30 seem to have gotten a change in each other months) there was a change. In general, a small horn symbol was added. 
In addition, on the HS30 models with L24 engine, the white Zs were now designed with a blue background. And the steering wheels, of course, also got the holes in the spokes at that time.

 

 

 

But now I'm starting to have some questions. 
Unfortunately, I can not find a bulletproof photo of a Z432 in series 2. In the photos, the Z symbol could also be blue, or has no color.

 

 

Finally, this leads to the fact that I have the following open points:

- Do all Zs from series 2 have the blue Z with horn symbol?
- Or does the Z432 really have a white Z without colored background?

- And: Does it follow that from the model change in 73 (different dashboard, door panels etc) all Zs are blue?
- But what happens in the model change from S30 to S31? It seems to me that after that all Z symbols no longer have a colored background.

Here is a photo of a reproduction horn button. I could imagine that they took the last model of the horn as a base and therefore it has no color, which would confirm my thesis from above.
 

 

On the left the blue Z, original. On the right the colorless Z, reproduction:

 

 

Thank you so much for reading all the way here. And thanks for all the help!

 

 

Edited September 9, 2022 by florian

[R501]

Regarding the S31, my '77 (1/77) has a blue background.