Paul Hartley of ADD Media photographed El Turbo in front of one of the locations of El Fenix, a chain of Tex-Mex restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.This 1949 Peterbilt 350 stood out if for no other reason than its sleeper. “Back in those days, that was the look – aluminum,” said owner Jerry Howard in 2006. His “El Turbo” was featured in the 2007 Overdrive’s Pride & Polish calendar.
See all of the 30th anniversary coverage for Overdrive‘s Pride & Polish here.Howard then had more than 35 antique trucks, some of them operating in his small fleet. He restored this Pete for the 2006 Pride & Polish at the Great American Trucking Show, where it won first place in Antique Working Truck.
In the sleeper’s original configuration, the driver had to crawl through a hole in the wall to get into the sleeper, Howard said. The sleeper was custom-made for Gene Smith, known as the “West Coast Legend,” who ran the truck in California from 1970 to 1998. It was featured on the October 1976 cover of Overdrive.
