After running for more than a million miles, this 2001 Peterbilt 379 was retired in 2015 and parked in the shop of Ms. Black Sheep Trucking, out of Meyersdale, Pennsylvania.
The driver's side had taken damage during an unload, said company owner Tammie Grove, and the Cat C15-powered rig was mainly being used for parts for other trucks in the company. One fateful day, though, Grove decided she was going to get it rolling again and got to work. After repairing the truck's damage with her team, she went to Maryland-based truck painter Charlie Murray, who did all the paint work, pinstriping and more on the 379.
"When I told him I was going to fix the truck up, I said, 'Let’s just keep it old school. Let’s just do like storms,'" Grove said. "He started putting these hexagon things on it, and I said, 'Charlie, that looks like a dragon,' and it went from there."
Those hexagons can be seen here on the side of the sleeper.Video and photos by Lawson Rudisill
The truck then became the "Dragon Truck," as Grove calls it. All of the artwork on the truck was airbrushed by Murray.
It starts with the dragon's head on the front fenders and continues all the way to the rear fenders with the dragon's tail. See the full design in the video up top.
The "Dragon Truck" was on display in Louisville, Kentucky, this spring at the Mid-America Trucking Show. Having the truck at MATS was on "80-something-year-old" Murray's bucket list, Grove said, so she brought the rig to the show for him.
The entire build took just three months, Grove said, which included a full interior refresh done by Grove and her mother.
"We ripped [the interior] completely down," Grove said. "There was nothing left in the truck. We ripped the dash out. We painted it." They also re-covered all of the panels, seats and more.
Murray also worked his painting magic in the cab with the floors, as can be seen in the video.
The 2001 Pete 379 also features lights throughout with green underglow, lights in the dragon on the back of the sleeper, and much more.
[Related: 'Twister': Custom builder's Western-themed 1970 Pete 358 honors original owner]
Find plenty more views of the rig in the video up top, and for more videos and custom-equipment features delivered to your email inbox, subscribe to Overdrive's weekly Custom Rigs newsletter via this link.
Tammie Grove: So I said, let's just keep it old school. And he started putting these hexagon things on. I said, Charlie, that looks like a dragon. And it just went from there.
My name's Tammy Grove. I'm with my Black Sheep Trucking Company, incorporated, and the reason I'm here is because the man who did the graphics on this truck is now 80 some years old, and this was on his bucket last. He wanted this truck to be shown at Kentucky Truck Show. That's why I'm here.
It's a 379 Peterbilt. It's a 2001. It has 1,000,200 miles owner. He's retired. He was retired in 2000 and fifteenths.
Start out with the dragon right here. And then you wrap around the back. Back here. His tail comes through here. Back through here. His tail extends right here. And that comes around the back going to the fenders. And that's all airbrushed on there.
We used to put it in the parades for the kids. So we did the dinosaurs there for the kids. I just love it. It lights up at night, but it just made their day. We bought this truck brand new. Got it. Okay. We had a driver in the truck. The side of it was smashed up, so we just it sat in the shop.
Everybody robbed parts off of it and my husband hauls windmill blades and I called him up and I said, I'm going to fix that truck up. And he said, go ahead. And that's what I did.
And then me and my mom did the whole interior.
Lawson Rudisill: What all did you do to the interior?
Tammie Grove: Everything. We ripped it completely down. There was nothing left in the truck. We ripped the dash out. We painted it, but we recovered everything that's in there. We covered the seats. My mom was a sew-er. Whatever I asked her to do, she did.
Hit or miss. We didn't know what we were doing. We just did it. Like I said, it was an old truck sitting in the shop. I told my husband, I said, I'm going to fix it up. And that's what I did.
And then the same guy who did the graphics on the truck, Charlie Murray, he did the floor for us. So we got a piece of wood and he just he made it look really good.
It took us three months. And my mechanic helped us a lot, too. Elvin Kinsinger. On the side of the truck, you'll see there's a there's a sign and it's my mom's on there and Elvin's on there and Charlie Murray to one. Like I said, he did all the pinstriping, all the graphics. He did all that.
