Among the most coveted Fords of their era are the 1946-48 Sportsman convertibles. And there was a Mercury Sportsman, too.

It’s said the Sportsman arose from two challenges at the Ford Motor Company at the end of World War II in the summer of 1945. First, there was a materials and labor  shortage as civilian auto production resumed, and next, there was a need for specialty models to spruce up Ford’s ’46 product line, which consisted of barely warmed-over ’42 models.

Earlier, chief stylist Bob Gregorie had constructed a personal beach runabout (based on a long-leftover Model A) with a sporty wood body for “Ford Number Two,” as he liked to refer to Henry Ford II. Senior executives admired the handmade beach car, and thus, according to Gregorie, it became the direct inspiration for the Sportsman. With its skilled woodworkers and thousands of acres of timber, there was no shortage of materials or manpower at Ford’s Iron Mountain, Michigan facility where the automaker’s station wagons were built, so the 1946 Sportsman was a ready solution.

The Sportsman was constructed much like the familiar wood station wagons, using the same materials: dark mahogany plywood for the panels and pale hard maple for the framing. Actually, there were three subtly different body designs over the ’46-’48 production run. It takes a Sportsman expert, really, to tell them apart, so minor are their variations, but all 1946 cars used the first design while the ’47 and ’48 models used all three.

Naturally, the Sportsman was essentially a wood-bodied version of the standard steel-bodied Super De Luxe convertible (see our feature on the Super De Luxe years here). Here we find the same Ford chassis with 114-in wheelbase and the same exterior sheet metal from the firewall forward. However, due to the Sportsman body’s greater width across the back, the slim rear fenders are borrowed from the Sedan Delivery while the tail lamps are from the 1941 passenger car (below).

As Ford’s inline six was not offered in convertibles, the sole available engine in the Sportsman was the flathead V8 with 239 cubic inches and 100 hp. (Ford and Mercury shared identical Ford V8s in ’46-’48.) Standard equipment was more generous than in the steel convertible, with electrohydraulic power windows front and rear along with the power top. Interiors were all leather with French stitching in a choice of three colors: Navy Blue, Red, and Golden Tan. There was a Mercury Sportsman, too, an easy exercise as the Ford and Mercury platforms were so similar, but only in 1946, and just 205 were built.

1946 Mercury Sportsman 

No surprise here: The Ford Sportsman carried a heavy price premium over the steel-bodied convertible. For the September 13, 1945 introduction, the list price was $1,982 compared to $1,488, a difference of nearly $500 or 26 percent. (Mercury’s price spread was similar.) And that, naturally, limited Sportsman sales to the boutique market. While it’s tricky to break them down by model years as Ford’s production year changes and model year announcements don’t necessarily align, around 3,700 Sportsman Convertibles were produced and sold in the three years on the market. The ’48 models were actually leftover ’47s.

Far fewer exist today. The bodies were fragile and susceptible to rot, especially in hostile environments. Ford recommended sanding and revarnishing the wood once a year, advice few owners were likely to follow. Sportsman authorities believe fewer than 100 examples are still around. Their rarity, along with the beautiful woodwork, no doubt explain why the Sportsman is so coveted today. In restored condition, a Sportsman can easily bring double or triple the price of a steel Super De Luxe Convertible.