What year is my Z?

[Carl Beck]

Originally posted by sahunt66

...snipped......

The manufacture date is 7/70. The VIN is HLS30-07736

Is there anything that explains how to read the VIN?

Thanks

Hi sahunt66

The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is comprised of two main parts.

HLS30 Gives you the "model information"

07736 Is the Chassis Serial Number

H = 2.4L engine

L = Left Hand Drive

S30 = body type ie the Sport Coupe that is the Z body

As someone else mentioned - 7736 is the chassis serial number meaning it was the 7736th Left Hand Drive chassis produced.

I believe that my article which you were referred to explains how the Series I cars were titled.

regards,

Carl B

Carl Beck

http://ZHome.com

[Carl Beck]

Originally posted by 2ManyZs

The VIN numbers on the Z's do not show anything except the chassis designation and the number the chassis was off the line.

Unfortunately, unlike US manufactureres and others, Nissan didn't "code" their VIN numbers to show what the car had for equipment.

Nor did they use a "fender tag" with the optional equipment that was installed.

......snipped...

Hi 2ManyZ's:

I would say that the VIN shows "the Model Information" and the "Chassis Serial Number". (just to be a little more clear)

The VIN also shows the Engine installed also.

HS30 or HLS30 has the 2.4L engine and is thus a "240-Z"

S30, S30S etc has no "H" so it had the 2.0L engine and was therefore a "Fairlady Z"

There was no need for a "fender tag" - as there were no options on the 240-Z except for the A/T.

FWIW,

Carl B

Carl Beck

http://ZHome.com

[Carl Beck]

Originally posted by Zs-ondabrain

And from what I've read in previous times and as far as I can tell,

There were 9977 cars in the first production year of the 240Z.

So if your Z is under that number than most likely it's a 70'

Info taken from "How to restore your DATSUN Z-CAR" By Wick Humble, Page 6, Paragragh 7, Line 8

Quote'' Only 9977 were registered as 1970s; 26,733 as 71s;

46,537 as 72s; and 52556 as 73s."

Hi Zs-ondabrain:

Just a point of clarification - I believe that you have slightly misinterpreted Mr. Humble's statement. There is a difference between the number of cars "produced" and the number of cars "registered".

I do not know where Mr. Humble got his registration numbers. I do know that they add up to a total of 135,803 240-Z's. The "Production" number is closer to 153,000.

From Oct 1969 through Jan 15,1971 - Nissan produced about 18,000 Series I cars (our highest recorded VIN is 17,827 at present). That's about twice the number "registered".

They produced aprox. 25,500 units of the Series II cars (highest VIN is 43496) 71 Model

They produced aprox. 54,000 units of the Series III cars (highest VIN is 100155) 72 Model

They produced aprox. 53,000 units of the Series IV cars (highest VIN is 172767) 73 Model Year.

Because Nissan left gaps in the Serial Numbers between the end of one Series and the beginning of the next Series... you have to subtract out the numbers in the gap's to get the actual production numbers. For example the VIN's stopped at 100155 for the Series III cars - the started again at 120001 for the Series IV cars - ie a gap of 20,000 units.

regards,

Carl B.

Carl Beck

http://ZHome.com

[Carl Beck]

Hi Everyone:

I should have noted in all my replies - my comments apply to North American HLS30 series cars only.

I also wanted to tell/remind everyone that I maintain a listing of VIN's for the 240-Z's. If you haven't done so already, you can contribute to our knowledge base by sending me the VIN, Build Date and Original Engine Serial Number for your 240-Z. We need all three data points to make useful information out of it. The Date of Manufacture is on the drivers door jam data tag, the Original Engine Serial Number is on the data tag under the hood, screwed to the passenger's side shock tower.

E-mail it to me at beck@becksystems.com

thanks,

Carl B.

Carl Beck

http://ZHome.com

[HS30-H]

Originally posted by Carl Beck

I would say that the VIN shows "the Model Information" and the "Chassis Serial Number". (just to be a little more clear)

The VIN also shows the Engine installed also.

HS30 or HLS30 has the 2.4L engine and is thus a "240-Z"

S30, S30S etc has no "H" so it had the 2.0L engine and was therefore a "Fairlady Z"

There was no need for a "fender tag" - as there were no options on the 240-Z except for the A/T.

FWIW,

Carl B

Just an extra point of clarification might be useful here, as some people have asked me about this in the past and still seem to get confused about it:

The Japanese home-market cars were available in several different versions and trim / spec options. However, the VIN number did NOT give the FULL information on what exact model and spec the car started life with.

For example, both the "Fairlady Z" ( S30-S model ) and "Fairlady Z-L" ( S30 model ) both had the "S30" VIN prefix - but were QUITE different models in many respects. So you can't tell whether a car is a Z or a Z-L just by looking at the VIN prefix.................

It gets very complicated when you look at the internal Factory identification codes for the different models. Here's a quick rundown of some of the Factory identification codes that related to cars produced up to late 1971. I have not listed any that are later than that because it would take forever:

*VIN prefix "S30" covers S30 / S30-C / S30-N / S30-CN / S30-A / S30-AN / S30-S / S30-SF / S30-SA / S30-SN / S30-SFN / S30-SAN.

*VIN prefix "PS30" ( 432 ) covers PS30 / PS30-N / PS30-SB / PS30-SBN.

*VIN prefix "HS30" ( Japanese market version ) covers HS30 / HS30-A / HS30-S / HS30-SA / HS30-H / HS30-HA.

So, with respect to the Japanese home-market cars ( which sometimes turn up outside Japan ) you CANNOT tell all that much from the VIN prefix. If you want to identify the EXACT spec and trim level then you have to cross-reference many other factors.

Alan T.