22 10-4 Magazine / February 2026 would later purchase – to a fire. At that time, the Detroit engine was still in the truck, and it only had 2,100 miles on the odometer. After leaving Siller Bros. Lee went on to work at Sierra Pacific for a few years, and then ended up at Ramos Oil, where he spent the last 16 years of his driving career hauling fuel and oil in tankers, and such. Now retired, Lee loves tinkering with old trucks and has done a few full restorations, including a 1954 Peterbilt Bubblenose, a rare 1938 Fageol, and a narrow-nose 1974 Peterbilt 351. These trucks, along with others, were sold, but today he still has three notable trucks including a 2-axle 1955 narrow-nose Peterbilt, a 3-axle 1972 Peterbilt daycab, and the 1980 Peterbilt 353 he bought from Siller Bros. In 2005, after Neil Siller passed away, his widow Kay ended up with the ranch and some of the trucks – including the other Peterbilt 353 water truck that was never used. All the Siller trucks and equipment that were being stored on Neil’s ranch were moved to their yard in Yuba City, and that is where Lee found and purchased his Peterbilt 353 in June of 2020. After it sat in his yard for about two years, Lee went to work on the truck and spent 1.5 years working on the “restoration” – although it really didn’t need to be restored, it just needed to be cleaned up. He did, however, take it down to just bare frame rails and the front suspension and then sandblasted and repainted everything. Pulling the blown motor and the 18-speed transmission Siller Bros. had put behind the CAT engine, Lee found and bought a 400 Cummins out of a 1975 Kenworth and then installed a two-stick 6+4 setup in the truck. Wanting the old vocational Peterbilt to ride smoother, he bought a single-axle air-ride cutoff from a 2016 Peterbilt and replaced the stiff dual axle rear spring suspension the truck originally came with. The wheelbase was extended a bit, but the overall length of the truck remained the same. He then bought and installed a 20-foot Morgan flatbed, that might allow him to one day haul a car or a golf cart, but it also added weight to rear of the truck, which made it ride even better. After a fresh paint job in the Siller colors but with a slightly different scheme, the truck was ready to enjoy and take to some shows. One of Lee’s friends is also a fan of old trucks – particularly rare trucks that have been kept original – and the other Peterbilt 353 surely fit that description. Dave Marciel (60) of Herald, CA has been a mechanic at the Detroit Diesel distributor/shop in Sacramento, CA since 1985. Working on Detroit engines (and other brands) for the past 40 years, Dave is very comfortable wrenching on these older motors. When he heard about this unused Peterbilt 353, he asked Lee to set up an appointment with Neil’s widow Kay to go see it, but they couldn’t get her to answer the phone. So, one day they just went to the ranch, and lo and behold, she was there, and they got to go in the barn and see the truck. Obviously, the batteries were dead, and the roll-up door on the barn didn’t work, so they couldn’t start the truck or pull it outside. A few weeks later, the guys went out there again, but this time Dave brought some fresh batteries and his welder to fix the roll-up door. After getting the door open and the truck fired up and rolled out of the barn, Dave made Kay a deal right then and there, and then Lee drove it back to Dave’s place, about 105 miles away, without any problems. There isn’t much to say about Dave’s truck because nothing has ever been changed – it is 100% original, including the 318 Detroit, the 5+4 transmission, the water tank, and the Siller Bros. paint scheme – it is all original from 1980. The truck only had 633 miles on it when Dave bought it, and the only reason it had any miles on it was because Neil would take it the Siller shop once every few years to have it serviced and change the oil, and that shop was about 30 miles away. Since buying the old Peterbilt last year, Dave has spent a lot of time cleaning it up, but that is all he has done to it, and all he ever plans to do to it. From here on out, for any shows he takes the truck to, he will haul it there on a trailer, because he wants the mileage to stay in the triple digits. I was pleased and privileged that these two men brought out their trucks and allowed me to shoot them together in Turlock, CA last September (2025) at the Soza Memorial Truck Show. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with these gentlemen, and they were kind enough to even let us do a livestream video of the trucks and their owners while at the show. You can find that on our YouTube channel (Ten Four Magazine). No stranger to neat old rides, Dave has a few other “original” trucks, too, like a baby blue 1975 Ext. Hood Peterbilt 359 with white stripes and a 12V-71 Detroit, 5+4 transmissions, a 36” sleeper, and factory air-ride. Others include (2) dark blue 1976 Ext. Hood Peterbilts – a 2-axle with a big KTA 600 and a 3-axle with a KTA 450 – both equipped with 13-speed transmissions, along with a yellow and black V8 CAT powered 1980 Ext. Hood Peterbilt 359 with two-sticks, a cabover Freightliner with a 12V-71 Detroit, and many others. As mentioned before, Dave likes his trucks to be factory stock, without any changes or add-ons, which made the low-mileage 1980 Peterbilt 353 very fitting for his collection. The last remaining co-founder of the company, Chuck Siller, passed away in December of 2023. Today, the operation is owned and ran by Tommy Siller, Neil’s son, and Andrew Jansen,
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