At a recent car show a very-original 240Z had something I'd never seen or heard of before: a hand written tag made of balsa wood that was apparently hanging from the rear-view mirror when the car was originally delivered. The tag contains the VIN as well as the color code. Some people claimed that these were used during shipping and should have been discarded at the port or by the dealer. I know that some of you are already familiar with this particular car but I thought I'd throw it out here for further discussion. I'm hoping that some of our resident historians will see this and be able to shed some light onto it.

Last weekend I took the fenders off a 1/70 car that I am parting out and found what looked like some thin wood debris on the top of the right side inner fender. After looking it at more closely I could see some writing on it, so I grabbed all the pieces, gently washed them off and took these pictures. I remembered this old thread and it looks like this is another wooden tag like the one shown. I can't really make out what mine says. It looks like 03 at the top, and maybe some other numbers or letters on the bottom. Nothing seems to match up with the VIN or paint code like the one Mike W posted a picture of, but it seems to be made of the same kind of thin wood.

-Mike

Mike I hope you try to protect yours it might be rough. I work in forestry industry and I found something like that I'd have it at the office to show off then we would work to preserve the piece. Great finds

Cool find Mike! Good eye, recognizing it for what it is. These tags sure fuel the imagination, don't they? Even more curious, is where you found it, on top of the inner fender.