Roger Kimball ordered the 1990 Peterbilt 379 featured here brand-new back in 1990 and had it custom-built for heavy haul, dump trailer work.
Adam Kimball with his son, Reeves Kimball
It's powered by a 425-hp Cat with an 8LL transmission and 4.33 rears and sits on a double frame. “It’s not fast, but it’s pretty consistent,” Adam said. The engine has been rebuilt once in its life, at 400,000 miles. Today, the unit has 1.4 million miles behind it.
Fitting for the time, the truck was painted Black Sable Metallic -- “Back in the day… if you had a black Peterbilt, that was the thing to have,” said Cumming, Georgia-based Adam Kimball. The truck was ordered with “every option on it back then but the rosewood dash,” which Adam said had problems at the time with cracking.
The truck today looks a whole lot different than it did 35 years ago. Adam Kimball had it on display at the 2025 Shell Rotella SuperRigs truck show at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The truck brought home a third-place trophy in the Show Truck class.
It's remained in the Kimball family for the 35 years it’s been around. Roger drove it up to 1999, when Adam graduated and took over behind the wheel.
When Adam bought the truck from his dad, he took it apart and repainted it black and purple, drove it through 2002, then parked it. It sat in the weeds until 2014. The Kimballs then “built it into what it is today,” he said. Parked for that 12-year stretch, “it sat out as just a set of frame rails and a hood covering the engine."
[Related: Custom 2005 Peterbilt 379 a trucker's surprise, with intricate hand-pinstriping]
The rig was ordered with a 63-inch flattop sleeper with an electric Varashield on the roof of the cab. The electric switch and gauge for the Varashield is actually still in the truck. During the rebuild, the Kimballs swapped in a 36-inch sleeper to give the unit a longer look.
The Kimballs didn't want to have to cut into the double frame, opting for the shorter sleeper to capture the "stretched" look they were going for.
The goal with the rebuild was “to give it a look where you see that truck coming down the road, it gets your attention,” Adam said. With the Ford mint green paint and stacks towering at 14’2”, “it barely squeezes in the garage, but it gets your attention coming at you down the road.”
Decorative pinstriping on the unit was done by Larry West, who had done paint work for “Smokey and the Bandit” and was friends with Bandit actor Burt Reynolds.
The engine remains mostly original, with some stainless steel braided lines and a stainless-wrapped radiator added. “It’s got honed nozzles and a bigger turbo on it, but we really haven’t done anything to it,” Adam noted. “I think it’s only had one [new] clutch its whole life. Rear ends have never been opened up.”
When they had the clutch work done, the engine was pulled for its own coat of paint, likewise a coat on the transmission.
Most of the custom parts around the unit are from 12 Ga. Customs, including visor and steps. It features Brunner boxes and a deck plate and rear bumper from 4 State Trucks. “Other than that, it’s a pretty simple little truck,” Adam Kimball said.
The interior is black leather with ostrich upholstery. The original dash remains, with added pinstriping to match the rig's exterior.
The carpet was pulled from another one of Kimball’s trucks that was getting a metal floor put in it. The dash still features a plaque that reads, “This Peterbilt custom built for Roger Kimball.”
Beyond its life as a workhorse and now a show truck, the unit also had its 15 minutes of fame when it was featured in two episodes of World Wrestling Entertainment television in 2020. Kimball said WWE was going to use the truck leading up to WrestleMania that year -- the promotion's flagship event each year.
The truck was wrapped in a theme for WWE wrestler Becky Lynch and was set to go on tour. “As COVID hit, it was gonna travel around, I think it was Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Dallas and a couple other locations, then it was actually gonna be on display at WrestleMania where [Lynch] was gonna drive it in, and then they were gonna display it afterwards,” he said.
During COVID, however, WWE filmed all of its shows at its Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, so the tour was put on ice. The truck still made appearances on TV with Lynch driving it up to the arena on two episodes of WWE Raw.
“My dad traveled with it, so he was the one that was accompanying the truck to do anything it needed,” Kimball said. “It was transported inside one of my conestogas. It was under top secret security at times, so the truck’s been around.”
[Related: 'Light it up': Restored '90s W9, million-mile Pete 389 keep milk-haul fleet rolling]
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Adam Kimball: It's a 1990 Peterbilt 379. My dad ordered it in '90. He drove it up till '99 when I graduated and started driving it.
My name's Adam Kimball. This is Reeves Kimball. We're from Cumming, Georgia. Name of the company is Kimball Transportation. We do conestoga work, extendable flatbed work, and do a lot of data centers and building materials, things like that.
We wanted to give it a look where you see that truck coming down the road that gets your attention. Figure with the color and the pipes -- pipes are at 14'2", so it barely squeezes in the garage -- but it gets your attention coming at you down the road.
So the truck's been around, but it's got some cool little stories behind it. It was in the filming of a couple WWE shows. It was wrapped, what was her name?
Reeves Kimball: Becky Lynch.
Adam Kimball: Becky Lynch was driving it. As COVID hit, it was going to travel around. I think it was Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Dallas, and a couple other locations, and it was actually going to be on display at WrestleMania where she was going to drive it in and then they were going to display it afterwards, so we were all sitting around at home watching TV and there's our truck on TV. My dad traveled with it, so he was the one that was kind of accompanying the truck, anything it needed. It was transported around inside one of my conestogas, so it was under top secret security at all times.
It was all pinstriped by a gentleman named Larry West. He pinstriped on Smokey and the Bandit. Didn't do the trailer, but he was good friends with Burt Reynolds, so he followed him around, hung out a lot when he was married to Loni Anderson. So everything goes way back on it. He also did all the General Lee cars, so he was on the movie set and followed that around when they were filming on the East Coast and on the West Coast. He would tell stories about how when they were painting them up, they'd pull 'em in, he'd paint 'em up and they would wreck 'em while the paint was still wet, do a little Bondo work, replace some panels and pull it back in.
The truck sat from 2002 to 2014, really just out in the weeds. Pulled it out of the weeds and built it into what it is today. When it sat outside, it sat out as just a set of frame rails and a hood covering the engine. It was factory with a 63" flat top Varashield truck, still has a switch and a gauge in there for the electric Varashield.
We wanted to give it a little bit of a longer look, so it's got the 36 [inch sleeper] on it now. Wanted to make it look a little more stretched out. It's a double frame, so we didn't really want to cut into it.
So it's four and a quarter Cat, 8LL, double frame with 4.33 rears. It's not fast, but it's pretty consistent. It's got honed nozzles and a bigger turbo on it, but really haven't done anything to it. I think it's only had one clutch its whole life. Rear ends have never been opened up. Motor's rebuilt around 400,000 and it's got 1.4 [million] on it now. It's been out of the frame. We painted it and painted the transmission, and that was when we put the clutch in it.
It's actually a Ford color. It's a mint green. Most paint codes are pretty complicated. This one's one letter and one number. It's very easy to remember. E9 is the paint code. It's very simple. I actually bought the louvered hood from Bryan Martin at 4 State years and years ago, thinking either the late '90s or early 2000s. He was selling that. He built a couple trucks with 'em, and this was one of the hood panels they had done from it.
The engine's really just the way it was. We put stainless steel braided lines on it wrapped the radiator in stainless. Short of that, we do 12 Ga. parts, so 12 Ga. visor, 12 Ga. steps, Brunner boxes, 4 State deck plate and rear bumper. Other than that, it's a pretty simple little truck.
The interior is black leather and ostrich. The carpet, we actually took out of one of our other trucks and put in here as we were putting a metal floor in it. So a lot of our trucks, we've got so many, we kind of mix and match parts and everything flows because we try to keep everything as nice of condition as possible. So even though it's got some miles on it or might be a used part, you'd never know.
The headlights on it are 359 double squares we actually took off one of the 359s we had. It was a one-owner 359, so the headlights would just come from that truck to this one. All the parts we rebuilt the inners with parts from Dirk's. The roof cap, we did 11 lights on. We had done that back in, I think the mid-'90s when more was more. It's got 11 lights on the roof, 11 lights on the back bumper, bullet lights on the back bumper, five tail lights, five breather lights. Tried to keep everything in sequence that way all of our numbers added up. It's only got two different style lights on it, the bullet lights and then the taillights. Everything else is the same.
When he ordered it was Black Sable Metallic. I guess back in the day everybody, if you had a black Peterbilt, that was the thing to have. So do a Black Sable Metallica. It had every option on it back then but the Rosewood dash -- I think they were having some problems with it cracking. So short of that, it had every option that you could get back.
Then still has the plaque on the dash, "Custom built for Roger Kimball." Somewhere we still got all the paperwork that went with it on the original spec sheet, the faded out yellow spec sheet. But yeah, only two people have ever driven it. He drove it for years and then I drove it. Short of that, my oldest son pulled it into the judging lane, and that's the third person that's ever sat in the seat driving it. And Becky Lynch, I leave Becky Lynch out. She's got a couple miles under her belt in it also.
I'm sure when he bought it new there was never a thought it would be on TV or more less at a truck show. We lived in New York when he ordered it. So the reason it's built so heavy is because he ran under an R permit. I want to say you could gross like 120, 130 on an R permit daily. So that's what it was made to do back then. So it's kind of like a Northeast dump truck-style spec. Like I said, it's not very fast, but it doesn't matter what's in back of it or what's in front of it, it's 68 miles an hour. It rolls pretty good.
