Don Reinsch's rare post-war '46 Mercury is the culmination of his quest to replicate a '47 Mercury he owned many years ago. "This is probably the most ambitious project I've ever taken on," says Reinsch, who has been building hod rods for 55 years.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
Reinsch chose a low-key approach to the rolling stock, going with chrome reverse rims, baby moons and blackwall radial tires. The front suspension was converted to a Mustang II unit, complete with power disc brakes.
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The bucket seats were donated by a 1995 Mercury Cougar, while steering column and wheel were sourced from a 1967 Ford.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
A closer look at the custom dashboard reveals the simpler approach, with low-key switches and round electronic analog gauges nicely spaced across the panel.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
The rear seat began its life in a 1973 Thunderbird; JC Upholstery in Salina re-contoured the seat to fit and covered it in an off-white Ultra Leather with a square panel design.
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Reinsch found the factory dashboard "too busy" with its twin instrument clusters and waterfall chrome trim, so he fabricated his own leaner panel and filled it with Auto Meter black-faced gauges. That's a Southern Air air-conditioning unit tucked under the dash.
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Reinsch winces a bit when he admits he paid nearly as much to have the front and rear Mercury emblems repaired and replated as he did for the entire car, which was bought at an auction in 2008.
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Reinsch chose to paint his bumpers the same Jaguar Seafoam Green as the lower body; the top half of the car is a 1996 Cadillac metallic green.
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The 1946 Mercury "waterfall grille" marked a major break from the pre-war models. Mercury had only been in business since 1939 when World War II erupted; only a handful of 1942 models rolled off the assembly line. Slightly more than 24,000 coupes were built in 1946 at a cost of just under $1,500 a copy.
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The beautiful curving lines of the club coupe reflect the high clouds of a summer Kansas day; the rear window is original, almost impossible to find curved glass.
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Reinsch said he always loved the lines of the '46-'47 Mercuries and this angle shows why. He had to painstakingly straighten out virtually all of the stainless steel trim, which had been flattened by time and weather.
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Keeping it all in the family, Reinsch opted to power his unusual Mercury coupe with a 302 Ford V-8 that he built himself. It runs a Crane roller cam, Edelbrock carb on a Speedway intake and chrome Summit headers. The power plant is linked to a Ford automatic overdrive transmission with a shift kit to keep things lively.
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Mike Berry / The Wichita Eagle
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