Good thing the owner of this truck directed my attention to its trick mural, because I wouldn’t have noticed it, being that it’s in a place where most wouldn’t even look, on the hood…
It appears that displaying murals originated on tractors, which is no surprise because everything truck-related trickles down from the tractors, right? Well, murals weren’t originally intended to showcase works of art. The first mural was actually used to cover up and hide the engine powering a modified tractor. After debuting the first (HyperMax) water-injection setup on a twin turbocharged tractor in 1973, John Thompson’s IH 1466 also debuted side panels that hid the engine from view. The tractor was nicknamed “Silver Shields” by fans, and effectively started the trend of displaying art, signs, names, and more on the side of tractors, and now sled pulling trucks.