Car Features 7 min read

The 1926 and 1927 Improved Model T: Ford's Last Facelift

The 1926 Model T Ford got a high hood, a cowl fuel tank, bigger brakes and color. What changed, what did not, and why sales kept falling.

Tom Ramirez

November 8, 2026

𝕏 FB

1926 Ford Model T Coupe, parked beside a prairie grain elevator

The record is worth reading closely, because the Improved car is often described as either a complete redesign or a cosmetic trim job. It was neither. Ford changed the body, the chassis height, the brakes and the options list, then held the mechanical core where it was. Where that fits in the wider Model T story is a matter of timing: Ford was answering a market that had already started to move.

What changed on the 1926 Model T Ford

1926 Ford Model T high hood and cowl, being cleaned in a workshop

The body work is the part most people notice. The cowl became wider and straighter, which gave front-seat passengers more legroom. The hood was raised to match, giving the "high hood" profile that marks these cars as a third visual era after the brass cars and the earlier black ones. The fenders were redesigned, and on the Coupe, Tudor and Fordor a nickel-plated radiator shell came standard. It was optional on the other bodies.

The fuel tank moved. On earlier cars the 10 gallon tank sat under the front seat. On most Improved models it went forward and up, into the cowl. That mattered more than it sounds. With the tank under the seat and the system fed by gravity, a car climbing a steep hill on a low tank could leave the carburetor above the fuel level, which is the reason owners learned to back up hills. A cowl tank sat higher, which helped, though the system was still gravity fed with no fuel pump.

The chassis was revised too. Ford fitted larger brakes and larger pedals, and changes to the frame, axles and spindles lowered the car by about an inch. Balloon tires in 4.40 x 21 size had arrived for 1925, and steel welded-spoke wheels were offered for the 1926 and 1927 cars alongside the wooden artillery wheels. By 1926 the electric starter was standard on every Model T.

Item	1925 Model T	1926 and 1927 Improved Model T
Engine	177 cu in four, 20 hp	Unchanged
Transmission	Two-speed planetary	Unchanged
Fuel tank	Under the front seat	In the cowl on most models
Hood and cowl	Earlier, lower profile	High hood, wider and longer cowl
Ride height	Earlier frame and axles	About an inch lower
Brakes and pedals	Earlier size	Larger
Wheels	Wood artillery, balloon tires from 1925	Wood, or steel welded-spoke as an option
Closed car colors	Black	Channel Green, Windsor Maroon early on; Fawn Gray, Royal Maroon, Highland Green later; black fenders
Runabout price	$260	$360

Color comes back, and so does a higher price

Ford's closed cars returned to color with the Improved line. Ford's own advertising from early 1926 shows a Coupe in deep Channel Green and a Fordor in Windsor Maroon. The three colors most often listed for these cars, Fawn Gray, Royal Maroon and Highland Green, appear to belong to the later production sold as 1927 models, and the fenders stayed black throughout. Wire wheels were offered in Straw, Casino Red Orange and Emerald Green, although the source for those wheel colors gives no year. The exact shades are still argued over among Model T owners, so a restorer is better off matching the color to the car's build date than to a single list.

The price moved in the wrong direction for a car whose whole case had been cost. The Runabout listed at $260 in 1925, the lowest figure of the entire run. For 1926 and 1927 it was $360. Some of that difference was standard equipment, since the starter was now on every car, but a buyer comparing showroom stickers saw a Ford that had become more expensive just as its rivals were becoming better.

Ford's advertising shifted with the product. A 1926 Model T Coupe ad pitched the car as "an ideal car for a woman's personal use," showing a mother and daughter. Another 1926 ad, which ran in the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's, explained the torque-tube drive. The company was selling comfort and engineering, which was new ground for a car that had been sold on price for most of its life.

The numbers: a facelift that did not turn the curve

The production record is blunt. According to the figures compiled by Allan Nevins and Frank Hill, Ford built 1,817,891 cars in the United States in 1923, the peak year. Output was 1,643,295 in 1925, 1,368,383 in 1926 and 356,188 in the shortened 1927 run. A second series, from Ford's own production department in August 1927, counts Model Ts specifically and gives 1,911,705 for 1925 and 1,554,465 for 1926. The totals differ because the two tables count different things, but they agree on the direction.

The Improved car did not change the sales trend. Chevrolet passed half a million cars in 1926, and in 1927 it sold more than a million and took first place in the US market. Its 1927 Capitol Series AA came in seven body styles from $525 to $745, with the $695 two-door Coach the most popular. That was more money than a Ford, and buyers paid it. General Motors president Alfred P. Sloan had bet that Model T owners would trade up for comfort, features and style, and the 1926 numbers suggest he was right.

"People sometimes say the Improved Model T failed. The records say something narrower. It was a good body on an old chassis, and it arrived after buyers had decided they wanted a different kind of car."
Tom Ramirez

Identifying a 1926 or 1927 car today

For a buyer or a judge, the Improved cars are among the easiest Model Ts to date by eye. Look for the high hood and the longer cowl, which change the whole side profile. Check where the fuel tank sits: in the cowl on most bodies, rather than under the seat. A nickel radiator shell on a Coupe, Tudor or Fordor is correct. On an open car it was optional, so it proves nothing on its own.

The supply is reasonable. Ford built more than 1.3 million cars in the United States in 1926 alone. Current listings of 1920s Model Ts for sale will include plenty of Improved cars, so a buyer can afford to be selective about originality.

How the Improved car ended the line

The facelift bought time, not a reprieve. Ford announced the end of the Model T on May 25, 1927, and the next day Henry and Edsel Ford drove the 15 millionth car off the Highland Park line. The plants then shut down for about six months while the Model A was readied. The full account of why production stopped belongs to the decision itself, but the 1926 and 1927 numbers are the evidence that forced it.

What the Improved car did was show the limit of the old design. Ford could change the body, the colors and the brakes, and it did. What it could not change without starting over was the planetary transmission, the transmission brake and the 20 horsepower engine. Starting over is what the Model A was, and the story of both cars turns on that point. The Improved Model T is the last chapter of the first one: the most refined version of a car whose time had already passed.