This 1986 Peterbilt 359 is parked at what might look like an ordinary parking deck. But for its then-owner, Justin Thornhill, it was the ramp up to Overdrive’s Pride & Polish indoor competition at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center Dallas at the 2006 Great American Trucking Show.
See all of the 30th anniversary coverage for Overdrive‘s Pride & Polish here.When he came down the ramp after the show, he was toting a trophy for finishing second in the Conventional Bobtail 1986-1998 class.
“Nothing on it hasn’t been gone through or replaced,” Thornhill said at the time. “Everything was cut. It was a cab sitting on a frame.”
Thornhill had restored the Pete with a 550-hp 3406 E-Model Caterpillar. The special touches included two transmission sticks and larger headlights. He aimed for “a little bit of new mixed in with the old.”
At the time, Thornhill was hauling cattle around the Southwest under his own authority, J.T. Trucking, based in Brownhill, Texas.
Paul Hartley of ADD Media took this photo for the 2007 Pride & Polish calendar.
