Brant Arnold, owner of the Tennessee-headquartered 2 Stick Mafia custom truck shop, built this Western-themed 1970 Peterbilt 358 into a truly impressive showpiece.
Arnold bought the truck from Kenny Reagan, based in Middle Tennessee himself and who ran the truck for years hauling cattle. (The truck was featured in Overdrive's Reader Rigs gallery in 2020 before Reagan sold it.)
Reagan was the original owner, and he sold it sometime in the 1970s but ended up buying it back in the '80s, running it until he retired it in 2004. Reagan himself retired in 2020 and sold the truck to Arnold.
Before: When Arnold bought it, the 358 was coated with yellow primer, as shown here. While Reagan took great care of it and the Pete was in good shape overall, Arnold said it had "started looking dingy, so it was time to freshen it up."
After: Arnold said despite all he did to the truck, the rebuild only took about three weeks.
When naming this truck after rebuild, Arnold said "there wasn't but one name for it" -- Twister, original owner Reagan's CB handle. The rig "was an old legend out West. Everybody knew it," Arnold added.
The truck features a 400-hp Cat with a 6 and 4 transmission and 3.55 rears. Arnold showed the completed unit at the 2024 Show for Lowe's custom truck and car show in Hamilton, Alabama, in May.
It had always featured brown tanks, fenders and frame rails, so he kept with that scheme and turned to a copper color that was used by Ford in 1980 for the principal body color. That year, 1980, the truck had been rebuilt for the first time, Arnold noted. The brown he used was a 1980 Chrysler color that gave with a fringe benefit.
Only after laying on the paint, he discovered when it's in the sun, you can see a copper metal flake in it. "That was not done on purpose," he noted.
That copper flake can be seen in the fenders shown here. Arnold used Talladega Fiberglass fenders and T-bar, and built the deck plate himself.
As beautiful as the Pete's exterior is, the interior is what truly sets it apart. Arnold carried the Western theme throughout the interior, which features five cow hides lining door panels, the roof, sleeper panels and other surfaces.
Arnold said he was in touch with Reagan throughout the build process. "I told [Reagan], I said, 'I might not pull a cow trailer every day, but there's five cow hides in the truck, so she still hauls five cows around everywhere it goes. Plus a bull skull mounted in the sleeper.'"
In the cab, Arnold replaced the twin-stick shifters with antique guns -- an 1858 .44 Colt pistol as the main transmission shifter and an 1860 Enfield rifle for the auxiliary.
Both guns were sourced by Antiques Roadshow appraiser Raphael Eledge. Arnold said both were once part of Hank Williams Jr.'s collection.
The truck also boats a 10,000-watt speaker system with Get Loud Audio subwoofers. At the time of the Show for Lowe's Truck Show in May, Arnold said this class 1970 Peterbilt 358 was in the running to go to the world finals in a sound system competition.
[Related: Alabama-based flatbedder keeps rolling in custom 389]
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Brant Arnold: My name's Brant Arnold. I'm from Michie, Tennessee. I own 2 Stick Mafia custom truck builds. I build custom trucks for a living. Run over the road for about 15 years. Now all I do is custom build trucks.
The truck behind me is a 1970 model, extended hood, a little window Pete. I've owned the truck now for I believe, right at three years. I got the truck and wasn't going to change a lot on it. The truck was actually in yellow primer when I got it. The truck was originally gold when they redone the truck in 1980. Black primer with straight pipes. Anybody knows soot and everything gets in the primer. You can't wash it out. She was sort of looking dingy, so it was time to freshen it up. I do a show in Mobile, Alabama. Truck show of my own. I wanted it to have a fresh look before then.
I pulled the truck in the shop and we actually built the truck in three weeks. I wanted the truck stretched, called a friend of mine. He run it into his stretch shop. We stretched the truck from 286 to 315. It come from a stretch shop. We rolled it in the shop. First thing I'd done was stripped everything off of it. Redone the body work on the truck. I was going to go back to the original gold. When I went to the paint shop, going through the paint cards, I went to the '80s colors. That's when the truck was redid, was in 1980 and I come across this copper and fell in love with it.
The truck's always had brown tanks, brown frame rails, and brown fenders. So I went with a little deeper chocolate brown. And as you can see in the sunlight, the brown actually has copper metal flake in it. That was pure accident. We've always said everything on this truck was meant to be. The copper on this truck is actually a 1980 model Ford color. The brown on this truck is a 1980 model Chrysler color. Until the first time we backed it out in the sunlight. We did not realize the brown had the copper metal flake in it. I built full deck plates on the back, handbuilt them in my shop. Talladega Fiberglass fenders and T bars, American Eagle stainless stacks, bumper and steps.
Didn't do a whole lot to the truck. We more dressed it up cosmetically. I wanted the Western theme. We went with that. The shifters, it's a two stick truck. Truck's got a 400 Cat in it with six and a four progressive 3.55 rears on tall rubber. My main transmission shifter is a 1858 .44 Colt Pistol. My auxiliary shifter is a 1860 Enfield rifle. Like I said, I tried to keep it all Western themed on the inside and the interior was built in a week and a half and stereo system in it. I do sound competitions also. It's 10,000 watts on Get Loud Audio Subs. Truck is currently in the running to go to the world finals in sound competitions.
The guns for the shifters. A friend of mine, Raphael Eledge, which is appraiser on Antiques Roadshow, he does a lot of buying and selling for Hank Jr. And they was part of Hank's collection at one time and that's where the shifters come from.
