Sheltered For 33 Years: 1946 Ford Super Deluxe V8
Ford must have had a heck of a year in 1946 because we keep coming across Dearborn products of all different models and body styles from that first post-WW-II production year. And upon further review, it appears that Ford did indeed build about 371K cars, in total, 74 years ago. One of the more common body styles to roll off of Ford’s assembly lines in ’46 was the Super Deluxe sedan and here is a very original example, located in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania, and available here on craigslist for $6,900. Thanks to Ikey H. for this tip!
And is so often the case with a car of this originality, there is a story included. Turns out that the second owner of this sedan purchased it in the late ’50s from the original owner and drove it for about 30 years and then parked it in 1987 due to leaky wheel cylinders. That seems like a minimus reason to park a car; leaky wheel cylinders are a way of life with old drum brakes, but nevertheless, that’s the story. The seller elaborates that this Ford was only used as a spare car by the second owner; perhaps that was motivation to just park it when trouble arose. So now the seller, who has possessed this Ford for some unknown amount of time, wants to find a new home for it.
So what do we know about the overall condition of this Super Deluxe? It’s been stored inside and it’s all together; as the seller states, “it’s all there and not in 37 baskets and 189 pieces like most cars its age.” Well, that’s true, though as of late, I have come across quite a few considerably newer cars that are in 37 baskets and 189 (or more) pieces while some of those recently discovered post-war Fords are in a similar shape to this example. Nevertheless, the not-assemble-it-yourself state of this sedan is welcome. And the body/trim would seem to be intact on this Super Deluxe. Even the small “Super Deluxe” badge is still in place between the bumper and headlight on the driver’s side fender. The body panels show no sign of crash damage or rust and there is still a bit of a shine to Henry Ford’s favorite shade of lacquer though the seller does state that the inner wheel well shields are missing. Another good sign is that the window glass is not revealing any cracks or delamination, or worse, outright missing pieces. The chrome bumpers have lost a bit of their luster and the hubcaps appear to have met the business end of a mallet or ham-handed Hank one too many times but this is all small, typical stuff.
The interior shows a bit discolored and worn. The seat upholstery, what can be viewed of it, still looks pretty good (the rear one in particular!) but the armrests are frayed and decomposing and the door cards are stained and torn in places. While the headliner is intact, it just looks old but at least it has not succumbed to gravity. Again, these are all typical and expected issues for a 74-year-old vehicle that has experienced 91K miles of operation.
Under the hood is Ford’s venerable flathead V8, which for 1946 should be a 100 HP, 239 CI version. This is a non-running sedan and the seller claims that “I have not had time to put a battery in it to try to crank it over, and I have not had the time to go over the brakes. It will need to be fully gone over before hitting the road….” I have to say that I’ll never understand that line of reasoning unless the seller doesn’t want to know what might be wrong with the engine. That same statement is encountered time and time again and I would really want to know the truth of the matter. It’s especially beguiling when there is a battery in plain sight under the hood. Come on, charge it up, hook it up and let fly! Just like the bank robber perp. in the first Dirty Harry movie says when confronted by Det. Callahan’s .44 mag. at very close range, “I gots to know”. The brakes are supposedly what put this Ford in the doghouse 33 years ago so, yes, by all means, get to the bottom of that potentially one-and-done test-drive event. As is the case with Fords of this era, the transmission is a three-speed manual unit.
Moving forward, what to do? Being a four-door sedan puts this Super-Deluxe partially behind the eight-ball. No prejudice here, but that’s the reality of old car preferences, the two-door coupes and sedans are the first picked for the team. So the body style, coupled with the originality of this example, one would think, steers the entire matter towards making this sedan a road-worthy driver in the same basic flavor as it currently exists. As always, we want to hear what you think, suggestions please; what direction would you take this nice, old ’46 Ford Super Deluxe?
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Comments
Very nice! I could only wish that my ’42 was in this nice of shape. I would take this and clean it up, repair what it needs, and then I would drive it. Have some fun with it. For the sedan models, I prefer a 4-door to the 2-door; the 2-door models always seem to be missing something. Otherwise, I would prefer a coupe. But this looks like a lot of entertainment without that much expense…
RE: Henry Ford’s favorite shade of lacquer- yes it was black, but it wasn’t lacquer at this point- he was an enamel kinda guy. As far as the engine, while I would want to know if it would turn with a wrench, it’s a bad idea to crank and run a car after sitting 33 years without a lot of prep by someone with experience, like oiling the cylinders first. You could end up scoring perfectly good cylinders.
I’m a wish me guy. Wish I had time. If I had a garage. If I had a warehouse, ect.
But this one is orphaned enough that one could leave it under a tarp and just drive it for fun. No paint work, expensive re- chrome and such. Just drive it to the store and watch for reactions. Well I might get around to fixing the brakes.
A few hours of TLC and I bet any of the guys here could have this flatmotor purring like a kitty. Too bad the guy wont go for that or the brakes–relatively easy stuff to do and you are that much closer to a cruise. And he’s not helping himself either. Might be a bargaining point but you would want to know if the mill is running. if the mileage is true it would need freshening up anyway. With insert bearings this could be a fun project, then fill with kids and head out for ice cream!
Cheers and stay safe
GPC
This one checks all the boxes for me too.
If this car were under my carport, my young BILS would get a good lesson as
to how we repaired things years ago and I would be the teacher! Shoot, I’d invite my
neice and nephew to this vintage car repair party too just to see if they could keep up. Beats doing repairs on my SIL’s
2012 Hyundai Accent. She bought it used and the only thing really wrong with it is that the door handle on the inside of
the passenger’s side front doesn’t work.
Easy fix you say? Not really. I don’t have
a damned thing in my toolbox that even fits it. All my stuff is made for American
cars only. I gotta say that I felt like a damn fool just trying to change the wiper
blades on it! I had her drive me AutoZone
where this pimply faced kid told me that I’d have to buy a set of tools that were
specific to the year and model of Hyundal
you happened to be working on that day.
I knew he was talkin’ crap, so I got mad and left. That’s why I like cars like this
ol’ Ford here. All substance and no baloney! If she’d of bought something like this, I’d have ready to roll in no time at
all. If Congress ever gets off it’s collective
assets, they could pass a law requiring all
foreign car makers build cars in the ‘States to use stand size US made nuts and bolts in their cars so that old farts like me could still work on stuff without
the need for computers or car specific
wrenches. Sorry ’bout the rant guys,
Think I’ll freshen my drink, slam it down, and go to sleep. Night all!
Hang in there Ken, take care buddy!
I hear you! Working as a mechanic I had little choice but to constantly invest in tools that did a specific job on some specific car. That was either to buy one or to make the tool, or jig. Interestingly enough I was buying Whitworth wrenches and sockets almost as soon as I was getting metric stuff. But fortunately, I’ve been out of the active trade for almost a year now. Just have my personal junk to worry about. I was over to my friend’s shop (before this COVID crap started) and watched as they tried to sort out the Auto-Close mechanism for the side door of a Honda ‘Idiocy’ van. My friend told me that they were FOUR days on that before they just went to the salvage yard and got another door (and the paint almost matched). I never saw so much wiring, processors, and servos in one place in my entire career.
I have a thing for these fat fendered Fords, I guess because, when I was a kid, my Dad had a 46 4-door just like this one. I have had several, Coupe’s and two-doors, never a 4-door. I have had flathead power and also with SBC and enjoyed both for different reasons. I generaly steer away from 4-doors ,but the 46 Ford would be an exception. This era Ford has always been reasonably priced compared to other years depending on body style. The last tudor I bought was a runnig driving 46 and I paid $5,000 for it. That was a few years ago, and you might think, this would be worth more. I don’t think so, as you indicated the seller is not anxious to check out the car and give any usable info. I think considering that body style etc. $5,000, is the top of the market.
The owner doesn’t have time to put a battery in and try the engine. Sorry, I don’t believe that story. I might believe that the motor will not turn over and the owner doesn’t want to know it.
It sounds to me like the current owner isn’t very mechanically minded and has no intention of becoming so, even just a little. But, if I read between the lines correctly, I think he is attempting to be honest about it. He does admit it doesn’t run and needs a thorough going over BEFORE attempting to drive it. Joe, I might even start at $4,000.00…for all the work ahead.
When did the factories start full production after the big one was won?
Geomechs and Ken hit it on the head, this new stuff is way too complicated and IMHO way too complicated, and it shouldn’t be. Friend had bought a complete chassis and drivetrain from a 37 ford, hadn’t been run in 20+ years. Hooked a battery, no spark , pulled the dist, sandpapered the points zap! Cleaned the carb and fuel system, put the rear wheels off the ground. Not only did this beauty fire right up, the clutch wasn’t stuck, and I went through the gears with no noise or grinding. Idled right down, oil pressure was a tad low when hot, so we went thru the mill. Common sense and none of that electronic crap. Maybe us old grey hairs are the only ones who would see the beauty in this!!! One of the things that makes this sedan so inviting, Guy does himself no favors by not getting it running or stopping. Maybe he really doesn’t want to sell it. Good luck to the new owner! Stay safe.
Cheers
GPC
Lynn, I am not exactly sure of the date, but I do know it was a little hap hazard. My dad and my uncle bought their cars, from thesame dealer, on the same day. My Dad got a 46 and my uncles was a 47, my dads a 4-door, my uncles a 2-door. Everyone wanted a new car and the dealers wanted to sell all they could, so there were allot of inconsistancy’s. I know Fords the year on the title,didn’t mean much, they woul use up all of the previous years parts on the current years cars. Therefore, you would get a 46, but the title would be a 47. I have seen several and the owners just couldn’t grasp the fact that the title and car did’t match. The good news is most people can’t tell the deference anyway.
Nice old Ford. I hope someone freshens it up and give it a good home.
Definitely worthy of restoration if not a total restoration bring it back to a all natural operating condition. ANY old (excuse me) historic vehicle being this complete should be at the least brought back to road worthiness. Personally if any historic vehicle has the bones should be revived to its former glory. Those were the mainstay of our history and like older works of art should be treated a such. If they are missing a drive train go on and update it but not with something that requires destroying the originality, No 600 HP retain as much of the car as possible.
Shaved door handles?
This example being a super deluxe would have had the 85 HP V8 the 100 HP model was reserved for the Mercury my Dad had a super deluxe had one after the WW2 and he always said it had the 85 HP motor he said it was a great car
Chris:
Please review the attached, it’s a 1946 Ford sales brochure which clearly indicates that the 100 HP engine was new, in a Ford, for 1946.
JO
Actually, by 1941 the 221 was up to 90 hp. The original Mercury engine was rated at 95 hp and remained that way until ’42 when it was boosted to a whopping 100. The 59 AB, which was essentially the ’42 Mercury engine (239) came out in ’45 and powered both Ford and Mercury cars through 1948. ’48 trucks had the 8BA/CRT from the getgo unless you got a Canadian version, which gave you whatever the dartboard showed on a particular day (as told me by a good friend). Another interesting tidbit: For war production (that was underway even before Pearl Harbor) Ford put all the V8 engines down the Mercury line. They were all essentially 239 engines but those intended for light-duty (Ford) use were sleeved down to 221. It never made a lot of sense to me but I’m just a hopeless gearhead with oil and grease for brains. I’ve run into 11A and 21A (1941/42) engines that were sleeved. Of course, the sleeves just came out and 3-3/16 pistons went in. The engines just said, ‘Thank-you’…
great info, Geomechs, as always. Ford also made the flatmotors for ww2 tanks and IIRC these were super heavy duty and the hot rodders looked for these, do you remember what the model # was for the tank engines?. nothing like the quiet idle of these and they had a a sound of their own on acceleration!! Stay safe!
Cheers
GPC
Thanks for your kind words, GH. I have to admit that my knowledge of what powered tanks is limited but I’m still learning. The only intended tank engine produced by Ford that I know of was the GAA which was a 1000+ CID OHC monster that powered some of the Sherman tanks. The twin 6-71 Detroit Diesels were also common in the Sherman. I chanced to work on some of those that were bought as surplus and set up as power units. I believe that a tank built by Marmon Harrington (the Locust?) was Ford flathead powered. Cadillac 346 V8s/Hydramatic transmissions w/o Park position also powered tanks that were designed to be dropped into the battlefield from gliders. The Ford flathead V8 for military equipment had a forged steel crankshaft while the lighter automotive applications still used the conventional engines.
Seller installed battery, engine wouldn’t turn, so claims “needs battery”. With one sitting there in plain sight, cables disconnected. Maybe some PB blaster soaking for a few days will free up the pistons so complete disassembly won’t be necessary.
Right you are Ken. Soak the cyls good, and hope the valves aren’t stuck but if they are you might be able to free them up if you take off the intake which isn’t difficult. Blaster is the ultimate . Stay safe.\
Cheers
GPC
I had a 46 i bought for $ 150.00 sold my 64 corvair monza for 1500.00 bought the ford cause i liked to go trail riding and fishin around mt Shasta calif.back doors were suicide doors. Best oldy i’ve ever owned