Simulated woodgrain: Is there anything it can’t do? At Mercury in 1968, it wasn’t just for station wagons. Convertibles and hardtops could have it, too.

For the Mercury Park Lane with Yacht Deck Paneling, we should probably thank the Di-Noc Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, which in 1962 became the DI-NOC division of 3M. By the late 1930s the auto industry had found all kinds of applications for the durable and decorative plastic film, but most famously, Di-Noc (or DI-NOC) was used to simulate wood paneling on station wagons, to recreate the look of when their bodies were constructed of real wood.

There, the attractive faux woodgrain came to suggest a kind of suburban elegance. Fake wood was a status symbol on the deluxe trim-level station wagons, an example of what Thorsten Veblen might call conspicuous consumption. So it was only natural that at some point the simulated woodgrain effect enabled by DI-NOC would be applied not just to station wagons but to other body styles as well.

Seaside photos courtesy of Barrett-Jackson

So here we have Yacht Deck Paneling for the 1968 Park Lane, Mercury’s premium model. For $129.50, buyers could have the same faux woodgrain then found on the Colony Park station wagons, patterned to resemble yacht decking, but on a convertible, hardtop, or two-door Brougham. (And late in the year, Monterey and Marquis as well, reportedly.) As on the wagons, there was no real attempt to create the illusion of actual wood construction. The woodgrain DI-NOC , here with a nautical theme, was simply a decoration, surrounded with bright metal trim to hide the seam.

The simulated woodgrain was practical, too, Mercury explained in the brochure. “Its gleaming hard surface protects your door edges and body sides from accidental bangs and scratches, and minimizes unsightly paint chips.” Furthermore, the Ford division added, “Wood tone paneling is available with all exterior paint color choices except two-tone combinations. And only Mercury’s got it!” (But in truth, Chrysler also offered it that same year, branded as Sportsgrain.)

In the Motor City, sometimes novelty features like these catch fire with car buyers, and sometimes they don’t. In this case, Yacht Deck Paneling barely caught a spark. A little more than 96,000 full-sized Mercurys (not including wagons) were produced in 1968, but only 943 were equipped with Yacht Deck Paneling. And of the 1,112 Park Lane convertibles in ’68, just 215 included the simulated woodgrain trim. These cars are exceptionally rare, and in the car collector world, rarity is a virtue in its own right.