1946 Ford Sportsman - The Sportsman & The Squire

You don't see woodies featured in the pages of SRM very often, but it's not because we haven't seen any worthy of an appearance. No, the problem is actually quite the opposite. Being located in Southern California, we see our fair share of woodies cruising the PCH (that's Pacific Coast Highway) on any given weekend or parked at one of the local cruise nights. The problem is that they're all built in a very traditional woody style, with the surfboard on the roof and a window full of surf-inspired stickers and constructed in a more restoration-style rather than that of what the STREET RODDER ethos are all about. But when we happened upon Mike DeVriendt's '46 Ford Sportsman and Jay Page's '63 Ford Falcon Squire Wagon, it seemed we had the full gamut of the modern-day street rodding hobby wrapped up in between the two cars. While Jay's represents what was basically the end of an era when it came to woodies, Mike's Sportsman was originally built in the woodies' heyday. And you'd be hard-pressed to find two cars so similar yet so completely different.

While a 1946 Ford Sportsman isn't the most common Ford on the lot nowadays, when Mike DeVriendt first started building the black '46 before you, he already had two others, one a restoration and one a hot rod. He liked aspects of both cars, so it was only natural for him to build the third into a combination of both. Mike's history is one full of hi-octane action, having raced a blown Flathead dragster and restored a pair of V8-60-powered midgets, so when he began putting ideas together for his resto-rod Sportsman, he decided on using Ford's old standby Flatty engine as the power plant, but with a few upgrades.

Mike opted to leave the majority of the stock Ford sheetmetal and wood paneling as Henry intended, instead turning his concentration to the running gear in order to balance the stock versus hot rod teeter-totter. An ardent admirer of the Ardun overhead valve conversion for the old Flatheads, Mike decided that was just what he needed to dress up the motor and give the car an unwavering hot rod vibe. Local Flathead legend Grier Manning adapted the block to accept the Ardun heads before assembling the engine with a four-inch stroke Mercury crank, as well as the matching three-speed transmission. A trio of Stromberg 97 carbs feed the motor through a Ken Austin intake manifold topped with a custom Ardun air cleaner. Mated to the three-speed trans via a stock closed driveshaft is a Colombia two-speed rear end that provides an overdrive gear for highway cruising.

With the motor providing the majority of hot rod styling, Mike then turned to Big O Fabrication and Jim Olson, who lent a hand with some metalwork and fabricating before turning it over to Mark Miller, who fabricated the immaculate wood paneling that surrounds the rear three-quarters of the `vert. Once fab'd, Wayne Saunders finished the wood in spar varnish, the finish responsible for giving the wood that beautiful golden color. Wayne is also responsible for getting the body nice and straight before applying the PPG Black paint. With the exterior wrapped up, the Sportsman then received the ol' stretch `n' stitch by Ron Nelson and Jim Skinner at Auto Weave using red leather and tan wool. Bob Kennedy lent a hand as well, applying the faux wood grain finish on the dash and window moldings.

Mike's goal of building a hot rodded restoration in a '50s style was executed and completed in spades by a group of guys local to the Colorado Springs area and resulted in one of the coolest woodies we've seen in some time. The perfect blend of stock and modified components give the car a definitive hot rod feel while still maintaining all the neat attributes originally designed by Ford Motor Company of the immediate postwar era.