10-4 Magazine January 2025

12 10-4 Magazine / January 2025 have just let him die. But guess what, he began to improve. He eventually got moved up to the covid recovery floor at the hospital, where his tenacity and Jonetta’s perseverance began to pay off. He was still in and out of consciousness but star ted to get better. It was at this point when many of the nurses, and even some of doctors that had written him off, began calling him their “Miracle Man” on the four th floor. Here is where the story gets weird – or cool – depending on how you look at it. Kent was obviously heavily sedated the entire time he was in the coma, but he does have some memories. He vividly remembers being in a dark hallway with a “T” at the end. At that end, he could go one way towards death, or the other way towards life, and he remembers being given that choice, but not knowing what to do. Well, when Jonetta jumped on his chest and forced his eyes open, even though he was still fully in that coma, he actually saw her! And after seeing his wife, he chose life, and then woke up. Eventually, they moved him to a specialized rehabilitation center, and they worked very hard to get him to a point where he could go home. And after four months from the day he walked himself into that hospital, that is what he did – he finally went home. Once home, he began taking walks around their neighborhood. Star ting out with the help of a walker, he was eventually able to ditch that for a cane, and then later get rid of that, too, as his morning walks grew to be three miles long every day. Six months after he got sick, just after Christmas 2021, he went back to work. Going slow at first, over time he was able to get back to normal – or should we say, his new normal, which was not normal, at all. While he was sick, Kent’s wife and kids, along with his customers, and even some of his competitors, came in to help and to keep the business going – and thriving. When he came back, much had changed, but he was very thankful to have something to go back to. I’m not sure what your beliefs are, but I do know that Kent has a strong faith, and this event caused him to rethink everything in his life and reset all his priorities. Today, he is basically fully recovered, with no long-lasting effects or ongoing medications, but he will probably never be 100 percent. He is an entirely different person with a completely different mindset – one of gratitude, appreciation, and most impor tantly, compassion for his fellow man. All the time when he was a mechanic, Kent also had trucks and did some trucking on the side. Over the years, he has had plenty of (mostly) older trucks – so much so, he created a DBA for his business called “Old Iron Rescue” due to all the old trucks he dragged into his shop. One of those is the 1957 Kenwor th 925 seen here. Kent got this truck about 20 years ago, and at the time, it had a shor t wheelbase, no sleeper, and a bunch of mis-matched par ts from other brands of trucks. Wanting it to be as period correct as possible, Kent spent a lot of time replacing those par ts with original Kenwor th par ts and accessories (like the step boxes, fuel tanks, straps and breathers). It also had a tired 335 Cummins in it, but Kent left that alone, at first, even though it burned a lot of oil. Working the truck par t time, along with his boys, about 15 years ago, he landed a sweet gig hauling concrete road barriers, and to this day, he still does that. A few years after getting the KW, the truck was involved in an accident, and the front got wrecked. At this time, during the rebuild, Kent decided to do a bunch of stuff to the truck including stretching the wheelbase to 273 inches, adding a 36” sleeper, rebuilding the butterfly hood, dropping a 475 Cummins Big Cam 2 in it, and painting the entire truck Lexus black with dark metallic magenta fenders and chassis. The truck also has a 13-speed transmission and Peterbilt 4-bag air-ride. This cool Kenwor th, with an all-aluminum cab and hood, has been fitted with 6” Dynaflex stacks, a Whit Log headache rack, stainless-steel Hogebuilt full fenders on custom brackets, a diamond plate deck plate with built in electrical and air connections, and polished stainless-steel boxes on each side, with custom heavy duty brackets made by Kent himself. The visor is an original, as are the headlights and brackets, which were re-chromed, along with the cab lights, horns, and spotlights. Kent added a chrome swan to the hood, three grill bars, and newer KW breathers (which needed to be upgraded when he did the engine swap). He has a sister truck to this one – a 1958 Kenwor th that was owned by his father – that he is building to eventually be a match to this one, so whenever he buys something for the ‘57, he buys another one for the ‘58, as well. In 2011, in preparation for the big national ATHS antique show and convention, being held that year in South Bend, IN, Kent had the entire