One of the parts that you rarely notice, almost never consciously touch and hardly ever think about are the rubber floor mats that Nissan used, especially in the very first 240 Zs and Fairlady Zs in Japan.

These mats were available for the LHD and RHD cars. They were also available with and without DATSUN logo (in Japan, of course, they were without, as DATSUN was never named as the manufacturer of the Z).

After a relatively short time, these mats were "replaced" by carpet and are therefore almost unknown and of no relevance to almost any fan.
But that could change soon.

As our restored cars should match the factory specification down to the smallest detail, this naturally includes the rubber floor mats as well as various other parts.
An early Z without these mats? Impossible for us!

We have therefore spared no effort and, after several years of trying and misfiring, have finally produced exact copies. These can also be purchased in our shop.

But what makes these mats so special, and what is the story behind them? In this article, we want to get to the bottom of the matter and show you a few exciting details about what is actually a very unexciting part of our dream car.

If you look for pictures of these rubber mats, you quickly realise that even Nissan has never taken particular care to show them prominently in the books. It is also difficult to find the correct part numbers. Here you have to dive deep into the subject.
But don't worry, we'll do that for you below.

The first known published pictures are those taken during the studio shoot.

So these are the photos that were used for the first brochures. At a time when it was not yet clear what the emblems on the vehicle would look like. You can even see quite clearly that the 240Z shown here for the US market has neither a clock nor a radio.
This approach is familiar from Japan, where there were generally several specification lines. Standard and deluxe.
From this photo, it can be assumed that such a subdivision was also initially intended for the export markets.

Later, in the November issue of the "Service Manual", the mats appear in a technical drawing and describe the structure of the insulation in the interior of the car. Here on an LHD car with DATSUN lettering.
Another early picture of the mats was in the owner's manual that came with the cars. Here you can see them in the illustration of the seat adjustment.

However, the fact that Nissan also uses the drawing from the US books with DATSUN logo in the Japanese books remains unresolved.
But it shows once again that even the books published by Nissan reveal some inconsistencies. It helps if you can look in more than one book.

For example, a photo of the passenger footwell, which also shows the footrest, shows the correct mats without the DATSUN logo.

Actually, these mats only appear in the very early vehicles for the USA and Canada. Well, actually. Because once again, it's not that simple.

Because if you compare the first editions of the service manuals with those from the following years, you will see that the mats appear everywhere in their schematic illustrations right up to 1973.
If you go a little further, you will see that these mats are also depicted in early Datsun 260Z manuals.

Whether this was just a mistake (surely these manuals were already in production before the cars went on sale), or whether there really was an idea at the beginning to offer the rubber floor mats later, I would like to write about that later in this article.

The only indication of a longer existence of the mats in cars, whether for Japan or the export markets, are the part numbers. A look at the microfiches usually helps here. But here too: It's not as easy as you might think.
As mentioned at the beginning, Nissan exchanged the mats for "normal“ carpet floor mats relatively quickly. In other words, there were also mats that were not made of rubber.
However, if you look at the Japanese books in particular, you can quickly see that even in later years a part number with E4100 can still be seen. An indication that this component was already introduced on early Zs.

The numbers of the two rubber floor mats + the matching rubber mat in the trunk are as follows:

74901-E4100 ASS'Y-TRIM, front floor RH
74902-E4100 ASS'Y-TRIM, front floor LH
74950-E4100 ASS'Y-MAT, rear floor

This was the earliest RHD type of the rubber mats used on the Fairlady Z-S and Fairlady Z432-R.

The export markets use different numbers. Here with the E46 prefix, which refers on the one hand to the export markets, but on the other to the HS30 variants for the Japanese market, it refers to models with an L24 engine.

The rubber floor mats in the European L-Drive book are described as follows.

74902-E4600 ASSY-TRIM FRONT FLOOR LH BLACK (RESIN)
74901-E4600 ASSY-TRIM FRONT FLOOR RH BLACK (RESIN)

The US Microfiche speaks of this:

74901-E4600 ASSY-TRIM FRONT FLOOR FRONT RH MAT BLACK VG-101
74902-E4600 ASSY-TRIM FRONT FLOOR FRONT LH MAT BLACK VG-101

What is noticeable? If you look closely, you can see that Nissan calls this part by different names. RESIN vs MATS. "RESIN"? A very inaccurate translation from Japanese into a Western language. As was unfortunately common in the 60s and 70s.

Note: In later versions of the European L-Drive, Nissan uses the term "MATS" and no longer "RESIN".

The R-Drive books are quite different. These describe the RHD cars outside Japan. For example, Australia and England.

Here, the designation of the two floor mats is as follows:

74901-E4300 ASSY-TRIM FRONT FLOOR RH BLACK (PESIN)
74902-E4300 ASSY-TRIM FRONT FLOOR LH BLACK (RESIN)

And here too: "RESIN" - in a book from 1974.

As already mentioned above, these rubber mats were not in every car. And not every customer got to see them. But why was that? Why were there differences in delivery?

In the Japanese books, this connection is more clearly marked.
Here, Nissan distinguishes between the individual STD and DX trims, with the note that there was also an option for this part in STD.
In other words: 74902-E4100 is the rubber floor mat, while 74902-E4200 is the carpet mat. For the higher DX configuration.
In Japan, these were also available (we remember, without the DATSUN logo) on almost all Fairlady Z-S. And the customers loved it. The mats were much more practical for the winter period.

In later models, Japan changed the part numbers, but still differentiated between "MAT" and "CARPET" in the books.

It is quite possible that this was also intended for the US market. There, Chester & Herod was the first manufacturer of the carpets, a traditional company that had been in existence since 1948.
Nissan contracted them to make the carpets before Nissan made their own ones.
Perhaps this is also the reason why the window sticker of the new cars clearly show an extra called "CARPET FLOOR COVERING".

According to Nissan USA - the first 1500 Datsun 240Z’s sent to the US were not equipped at the factory with full carpeting, which was supposed to be Standard Equipment on them. Nissan USA contracted with a US OEM in California to produce 1500 sets of full carpet for the 240Z’s.
The carpet sets were sent to Nissan USA’s Shipping Depot - to be in stalled as the 240Z’s arrive. Carpet Sets were sent to the Dealerships for cars that arrived before the Carpet Sets were completed. Dealers were instructed to install the Carpet Sets for the customers that did not receive them before the Sale.
Some Dealers left the rubber mats in the cars when they installed the carpet sets - others took the rubber mats out and replaced them with the carpet sets.

In addition, the rubber mats were labelled as an option in both the US and EU markets.
While in Japan, they were the standard equipment and carpet mats are available as an option.

Certainly not. Because Nissan wouldn't be Nissan if they hadn't introduced a new part for every little variation.

We have already mentioned a footrest in the front passenger compartment. This is mounted on the floor of the car. With two screws. Of course, these screws not only go through the sheet metal, but also through the floor mats!
And of course, the customers or dealers did not have to cut or drill through the mats for this.

Because Nissan offered the matching floor mats! Of course also for the carpet versions.

If you go a little further back in history, you will stumble across another detail: the rubber mats were installed in the early rally cars.
But not in the way you might think. The early cars, which were based on the light-weight Z432-R on the body side, had the Japanese floor mats. Here without the logo and on the wrong side, so to speak.

The R bodies of the rally cars were factory vehicles that used body parts from the Z432-R, only as left-hand drive cars.

Note: This insignificant detail even makes it onto a drawing by Takeshi Hosokawa.

Later rally cars were quite different. Here, Nissan used carpet mats with a small rubber surface in the centre.

If you want to come to a conclusion on this topic, which once again seems somewhat complex, then I would put forward the following theses:

• From the very beginning, rubber mats were standard equipment in Japanese cars. They were also available as an option for higher trim levels.

• In US export markets and in Europe, the rubber mats were an option. And one that was in rather low demand and therefore virtually unknown. It could be argued that the focus here was more on "luxury" and "good equipment" and that a rubber mat was not perceived as being of such high value for export. There is also no known EU car in which the mats have ever been seen.

• In the USA, "carpet floor mats" were also explicitly listed as an extra in the purchase documents, which meant that rubber mats certainly disappeared from the perception of dealers and customers very early on.

• In Japan, the rubber mats were still available until later years (but then with a different number), especially on the small STD versions of the Fairlady Z-S. They were also still available in the DX versions as an option.