1946 Mercury Sportsman

Heading these prestige cars was a bevy of wood-bodied sedans, wagons and convertibles. Chrysler Corporation had introduced a novel barrel-back Town & Country sedan-wagon before the war, produced as a Royal in 1941 and Windsor in 1942. A flight of five “woodie” styles was planned for 1946, but in the end only a Windsor sedan and New Yorker convertible were put on sale.

Nash, meanwhile, put wood appliqué on an Ambassador sedan and sold it as the Suburban from 1946 to ’48, while Chevrolet offered a dealer-installed Country Club wood kit for 1946-48 models. At first glance it might appear that the Ford and Mercury Sportsman convertibles were conceived to emulate the Chrysler Town & Country, but the truth is not so simple. During the war, Henry Ford II noticed a Model A chassis sitting in a corner of the Ford design studio.

It had been there since the 1930s, an artifact about which the elder Henry Ford loved to reminisce. Young Henry asked chief designer E. T.

“Bob” Gregorie to work up a body for it, so he could drive to the beach at his Long Island home. Gregorie sketched up a wood-bodied convertible, with two doors, red leather interior and a khaki top over a Model A frame. It had a forward-sloped tail with Continental spare, which dropped down, tailgate style, and a stylish curved coupe pillar similar to that of the 1928-29 Model A closed cars.

After the Fords had used the Model A for a summer on Long Island, it was given to Gregorie, who kept it and took it to Florida after his retirement. That Model A convertible had a profound effect on the postwar Ford product line. In early 1945 Gregorie and his lead illustrator, Ross Cousins, were inspired by the sprightly little car and worked up drawings for a wood-bodied 1946 convertible.

A prototype was built at Iron Mountain by taking the skin off an early production convertible and fitting wood in its place. Using standard convertible parts to the extent possible simplified manufacture and helped restrain costs.