I have a '77 parts car and it does not have a sloped deck like that. I've never seen one like it either.

My early '77 is sloped too. My '76 and '78 from earlier years where flat so I thought it was hung on something when I bought it. I'm in the process of taking out my motor so my hatch is full of boxes with parts. It's still dark this a.m but when I'm home later, around lunch, I'll take pictures with up and down. One thing I found was a plastic hook on the end of elastic rope to hook around the driver's side hatch strut to hold the deck up for removing the spare and tools. It has those 2 knobs above the carpet to hold it down. Give me a few hours and I'll have you plenty of pictures. Finally I get to help!

From all the photos, it looks like all those 'sloped' decks are stained from water, and the slope is there because the deck sagged and the end went up. There just aren't enough supports under the deck to keep it flat after the substrate absorbs water or moisture over the years.

IMHO, I think if all those people with the 'sloped' deck would take that part out and flatten it back to normal, then they would change their mind.

From all the photos, it looks like all those 'sloped' decks are stained from water, and the slope is there because the deck sagged and the end went up. There just aren't enough supports under the deck to keep it flat after the substrate absorbs water or moisture over the years.

IMHO, I think if all those people with the 'sloped' deck would take that part out and flatten it back to normal, then they would change their mind.

No, there really are sloped/curved decks. I've seen them and they aren't from 'water damage'. It's a different setup from the flat/raised 77-78 so I always thought that it was a 75-76 thing and may have carried over into early 77 as Nissan/Datsun was known to do that during model year transitions. But remember, the raised deck in the 77-78 was because of the larger gas tank - collapsible spare setup so it wouldn't have been because of 'two different factories' (let's be careful with the anecdotal stuff - there's already enough of that). I think siteunseen may be mistaken about his 76 having had a flat deck. What we need is a shot of mgoods 76 in that area. Grant, is your 77 'early'? Like I said, there may have been some carry over into early 77 but this Wiki quote basically sums it up:

Also new for the 1977 model year, 280Zs no longer received the full size spare tire, and instead had a "space saver" spare and a larger fuel tank. This resulted in a raised rear deck area made of fiberboard, reducing cargo space.

Edited October 20, 201113 yr by sblake01

I hope this helps somehow. If I could take more pictures let me know and I would be happy to do it. This is titled as '77 but the production date is 9/'76.

Anything from 8/76-7/77 would be considered 77. So that is an early 77. Somewhere in the first coulple of months of 77 model production, the spare tire well was raised and the larger gas tank was added necessatating the need for the raised deck to clear the spare which now sat higher. Again, nothing to do with water damage or multiple production plants.

Edited October 20, 201113 yr by sblake01

I can tell you with absolute certainty that at least the earlier 76 models had no wood/cardboard. Mine is a 4/76 and has the standard "240Z" style carpeting in the hatch.

Okay, well maybe that narrows it down a bit. I know all of the 78s and all but one of the 77s I've seen had flat, raised decks. Maybe the sloped, curved decks went from mid 76 to early 77.

I think the changes from the carpet to the raised deck coincided with the size of the spare tire, and maybe even the fuel tank type. The sloped deck that eliminated the tail light panel, is the mystery.

I think they also had space saver spares, air cans, and criss cross straps. My friends 77 has the exact same deck as siteunseen.

Edited October 20, 201113 yr by cygnusx1

siteunseen, Thanks! that is what I needed to see. Maybe tomohawk will understand, you will see that if it was flattened out it would not fit and if the taillight cover was with the car it would need to be cut in order to conform to its profile. My car is registered as a 78 but really it is a 77 the vin ends 362806 if that meens anything. The little hooky thing actually looks like it could come in handy.

I looks like I have most of the parts, I just need fasteners and time to put it back together.

Edited October 20, 201113 yr by grantf

According to the microfiche, your car would be an early 77 as I thought. It shows a 1977 as 8/76 to 7/77 and 350001 to 420000. How did it get registered as a 78?