Bryan “Bossman” Martin takes us inside his Peterbilt 359 ‘Rat Rod’.

The power plant behind this rig is an 87 model four and a quarter caterpillar engine. 425 horsepower which was pretty big back in the 90s. But this is not the original engine. “It originally had a v8 CAT in it, a 3408 but they are not super practical to run these days. They’re extremely heavy and very difficult to find parts for,” Bryan told us. The transmission on this Rat Rod is a nine-speed with a four-speed Auxilliary.

But even though this truck looks ratty, you can see that everything is dialed in. The radiator is clean and fresh, the engine is relatively leak-free, all the hoses and routing everything under here is nice and tidy. It may have the appearance of a rat rod but it’s extremely tight when it comes to mechanical.

A little known fact is that all through Bossman’s early days he wanted a long 359 flat top with a four and a quarter cat engine, two transmissions, and a low leaf suspension. Bryan always thought he would have to build it. But as fate would have it he had a customer/friend named Randy Humphrey from Florida. Randy was hauling cows in this truck back then with his son Keith and he had decided he was ready to order a new truck. So, Bryan is actually only the second owner of this truck. “It was just, right place right time, the right moment”, according to Bryan.

When Randy sold it to Bryan it was also with a promise, that if Bossman ever wanted to get rid of her, Randy would get the first option to buy “Rosie” back. They shook on that and Bryan still intends to honor that if the day ever happens, but Bryan says, “The bad thing is Randy, you’ll never own it because I’m never going to sell it. Sorry, brother.”

“I have had a lot of people offer to buy this rig. As soon as they ask me what it would take I just zip it. I have 3 daughters, and this truck is like my 4th child. So, I have no intention of parting with it. I bought this from Randy way back when, gosh, I guess it would have been around 2005 or 2003” Bryan told us, “But don’t quote me on that, I am the world’s worst [about time.]”

Bryan told us all about the rat rod’s creation, one story at a time, “I bought it and I took the double eagle sleeper off and sold it. I had this black 63-inch Flat Top sleeper put on here and at that time it was already kind of weathered as far as the paint fade and a few dents here and there. So, I just went full bore with the rat rod motif.

We took the floorboard and the carpet out and put down this Phillips 66 it’s an old service station sign. We took the upholstery off the doors and kinda retroed them out with some old hot rod stickers. Then kind of jacked up the headliner with a speed limit sign. Just had a ton of fun with the interior. Didn’t spend a lot of money, but tried to make each thing we added more unique to make it the right piece. The steering wheel is still the same one Randy had and so are the shift knobs. Then everything else we kind of did after I took ownership of the truck.

Another thing we did was this truck had air wipers. It had an individual control for the left and the right and they’re real herky-jerky and I’ve converted it to an electric so a huge step forward on getting into the modern age with those electric wipers.

Probably the single biggest upgrade to this truck was that we enlarged the hole to the sleeper and made it the same as a unibilt so you can actually slide the seat back and recline the seat without running into the wall. So for comfort that was the best feature.

When Randy bought this truck it was an 87 model and it was a glider kit. It had no engine, no transmissions, no rear suspension, So, he didn’t complete the truck and tag it and title it, and put it to work until 1990. So even though this is a 359 and the last year they made them was 87′, which is when Randy bought the glider kit, since it didn’t get titled until 1990, technically on my title this is a 90’s model Peterbilt. But they never made a 359 in 1990. It’s weird to explain to people and they often tell me I’m wrong, but it is right because back then they would title it the year you first registered it.

One thing about Humphrey, mechanically, everything was perfect. I remember when I got it and to this day, every routing of an air hose, every fuel line, every clamp, every boot is just tip-top. So, even though it looks ratty and I get a lot of flack when you’re trucking and you pull into a scale house and more times than not they’ll say pull around back, bring your paperwork and registration and they will think, “oh man, easy target, this kid is hard up. He has let this whole truck go, we’re gonna write him a bunch of tickets.” But the truck is actually in great shape so it usually just slows me down for about an hour or so, while they check everything out and inspect it, and then they send me on my way.

A lot of these parts are actually trade-in and take-off parts. Like my stacks and front bumper, a customer would come in and I’m getting new eight-inch stacks, I’ll just leave these here. I did put new battery and toolboxes on them. They were new from the chrome shop. I did finally have to put new fuel tanks on and we painted them, we purposely made them look old. I love the fuel tanks, Johnny did a phenomenal job on those.”

“It’s an awesome truck. I love driving it. I could be in a bad mood, I can be worn out, and I get in this and it just kind of clears your mind,” Bossman said.

We know Bryan loves this truck by the look on his face as he tells his stories about it. He has so much pride in the work that was done, the friendships that helped him get to this point, and how he accomplished his dream. Bossman is also very humble about the fact that he couldn’t have done it alone and gives credit where it is due on this rig.

Bossman’s got some personal driving stories for you too, but to hear all about his hauling you will have to watch the video.

Thanks for reading folks and we hope you enjoyed Bryan “Bossman” Martins 359 Rat Rod!