Ken Trout had given up on ever finding a Model T Tudor sedan.
He had already owned two Model T roadsters—one steel, and the other fiberglass, both which he converted to hot rods—but the much-sought two-door sedan would remain elusive.
Trout had paid his dues in all forms of the automotive business. The 64-year-old moved from Tennessee to Charlotte, North Carolina—NASCAR country—and in the 1960s went to work for Harry Hyde’s K & K Insurance NASCAR team, which fielded cars for driver Bobby Isaac.
For the next 30 years, Trout stayed in Charlotte, working for various race teams. During his free time, he built hot rods and dragsters. In the 1980s, he also built a 1949 VW Beetle, one of the earliest Volkswagen resto-rods.
In his time, Trout had built every hot car he desired, except one—the Model T sedan. “I always wanted one, but could never find a two-door sedan,” Trout says, who today lives in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Until, that is, he did find one.
He was walking through the AutoFair swap meet at Charlotte Motor Speedway a few years ago, and there, on a trailer, sat his dream car—a 1925 Ford Tudor. “It had been sitting in a Georgia barn for 64 years,” Trout says.
After a long search, Ken Trout of Lebanon, Tennessee, finally found a Model T Ford Tudor sedan. It was basically a one-owner when he bought it. KEN TROUT
The original owner decided to restore his trusty old Ford and started to dismantle it. The fenders, running boards, hood, and radiator were removed. “But then he got real sick,” Trout says, “and all work stopped.”
Trout simply lifted the body up, sold the original frame and drivetrain, and rolled this new Hemi-powered chassis underneath. The car has a very modified drivetrain, but the body still has the black paint from 1925! KEN TROUT
The car was parked near an open door in a barn on the original owner’s property, causing people to regularly inquire whether the car was for sale. So the owner’s relatives covered the car with a tarp and let it sit for decades. When the owner died, the family held an estate sale and sold the Model T Ford sedan to an old car enthusiast in Georgia.
“When I saw it at Charlotte, I bought it on the spot,” Trout says. He removed the body and sold off the original chassis, which included the engine, transmission, rear differential, and suspension. Then he built a custom chassis, and working with his 10-year-old nephew, Eugene, installed a modified 392 Chrysler Hemi engine, which was left over from Trout’s old nostalgia dragster. The pair also installed a four-speed road racing gearbox, narrowed 9-inch Ford rear, and a racing fuel cell. “I built it basically as a street-legal A-Altered drag race car,” he says.
But lest you think that with the car’s powerful drivetrain and racing pedigree that it also has a slick black paint job that appears to be 6 inches deep, better think again.
“I didn’t touch the original paint,” Trout says. “It didn’t have any rust, so I left the original black paint. It just looks great with all that patina.”