So I was driving home the other day when the question popped into my head. Who and when did fake wood grain on the exteriors of cars come into use? Obviously in the past some exterior panels were actually made of wood thus the look, but I'm curious what company was sitting around and said "hey, you know we don't have real wood on our cars anymore, but what if we had the illusion that we did?". Anybody know the story?
The technolgy came from 3M in the 40's after the war when got out of war material production and started doing road sign reflective films and perfected offset vinyl printing. One of the frst cars to use 3M di-noc woodgrain vinyl was the 1950 Chrysler Town and Country, the last real wood American woodies were 1953 Buick wagons. It just got too expensive for production cars. http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2005/09/01/hmn_feature7.html
Didn't know that about the 50 Town and Country. Of course, we all know, Ford went straight from a real wood 51 Country Squire to a fake wood 52 Country Squire. Got the look of real wood without the worry of wood rot and termites.
Here is a link to the history of Ford Country Squires that details the switchover from real woodies to a very brief intermediate phase (2 model years, I think, 1952 & 1953) when the lighter surrounding trim was still wood, but the darker paneling was 3M Di-Noc, to the full-on "fake woodie" where the lighter surrounding trim was now fiberglass, and the darker paneling continued to be Di-Noc (starting with the 1954 model year). http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...q=1953+ford+wagon&hl=en&sa=G&gbv=2&tbs=isch:1
You know me, I'm all about the Di-Noc and trying to keep it "young". Appreciate the info I get here on SWF as well as the appreciation of other wagonistas.
Years ago, I owned a clock manufacturing firm and we made cylindrical grandmother clocks for an architect's office tower project. We bought self-adhesive real veneers in Walnut, Ash, Burled Maple, and Red Oak, and started with a sample of teakwood. The veneer is applied with pressure and heat, then treated like any veneer. We used a Catalyst satin lacquer to finish them off. It wasn't cheap, but the clocks are still around, 28 years later. Thomas Register has several US companies with good products. We bought ours from a West Virginian firm. A good Marine Varnish would do the job in spades.
Sounds tasty Norman - good-looking real wood that can stick to another surface (hmm ... a real veneer woody... but then I'd have to maintain that real wood -arghh). Those clocks sound cool.
1949 GM wagons had less wood than 1948s and during 49 they went from real wood to Di-noc. Colored Di-noc was what was put on the clay models to make them look like real cars during the developement of a new car. If they wanted to change a contour, they peeled the di-noc off , changed the clay and then re-di-nocced it.
