Much as I hate to admit it, wanting to stick to a Ford product for a weld on front stub is going to be somewhat limiting. The majority of the good parts on front ends were unibody cars. Might want to do some looking at and measuring on a Crown Victoria or Grand Marquis front end (mid 70's through mid 80's). They are rather wide, but so are the fat fendered Ford's from the last half of the 40's. Might require some jigging and narrowing to get a Crown Vic front underneath the '46, but they are allready setup for running a small block Windsor in them and have big front disc's and good suspension. On one of my Merc's I'm running a Crown Vic frame, worked out quite well, had to do some "adjustments" to the front wheel well opening to make the Merc body fit the chassis, but it worked out great. Got some pic's in my gallery (the red Merc) if you're interested....

The best part of using a Crown Vic donor car would be that with some searching you could quite easily come up with one that has the cop car options on it, bigger sway bars and brakes, some had 4 wheel disc brakes and a positraction rear end....