'68 Mercury Parklane convertible w/ "Yacht Paneling"

Found this interesting car on Ebay, while searching for wagons. Looks like it needs a decent amount of work. Have no idea how much these are worth restored. But, a pretty neat car. Would look good alongside a '68 Merc Colony Park wagon.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercury-Oth...271365654758&pt=US_Cars_Trucks#ht_1577wt_1124

Car from the auction:



Here's what a nice example looks like:



And a Colony Park wagon for comparison:

 

I think I saw this one advertised before on Craigslist. These do pop up from time to time, but not often.

 

One of those was in my neighborhood when I was growing up. It was yellow with the wood paneling, wire wheel covers, black interior and black top. It was always garaged, and always looked pristine from the time I first saw it in the late 60's through the early 1990's when it suddenly disappeared. It was the only 68 Mercury convertible I had ever seen up until maybe 15 years ago.

 

There is one in OKC that has been on CL off and on for over three years. Guy post the same exact verbage every time. No pics, and he won't provide any. In his ad, he says "if you know what these are, you know what they look like!"...True, but what does YOURS look like, Jack??? Hasn't been on the road for over 20 years, "stored inside" (we know what THAT can mean), and claims he can't get the car out to show or take pics of.

Oh, and he wants over ten grand for it, according to a good source!

Not.

 

Quite a few years ago, the price guides valued these cars at a pretty penny. I don't know if the interest is still there. I would think it would be worth more if it actually had the yacht-deck paneling installed on it.

 

If he can't get it out to show it, how would he get it out if you bought it? :confused:

 

Exactly - the seller is too lazy to even try to get the car out to view, unless he already has the buyer's cash in-hand, and I don't think anyone is quite that stupid.

 

I believe these started out as concept cars on the auto show circuit. Had a pretty good reception, and the cost to make the production run was pretty cheap. There was also a 2-door hardtop version as well.

This guy's convertible is pretty much just that, W/O the paneling.

 

Chrysler also had the woodgrain option in 1968 for the Newport fastroof coupe and the convertible, called the "Sportsgrain" option. With just 2,947 '68 Newport ragftops and nearly 36K of the fastroof coupes built, I've read where perhaps <1% of the total production had this option - so that would be 30 ragtops and perhaps 350 of the fastroof cars with the Sportsgrain option.

 

A very rare car indeed, and best of all, the top goes down. This is worth a good chunk of change when fixed up, especially because it is the Park Lane, not Monterey. Very few were made.