The Ultimate Guide to Customizing Your Peterbilt 389 Truck

13th Jun 2025

Are you a commercial truck driver looking to customize your Peterbilt 389 truck with aftermarket accessories and parts, but don’t know where to start? This guide is here to help.

This model came out in 2006 and has been a hit with commercial drivers ever since - the latest iteration being the 2025 model year which launched 2 years prior.

Lauded as the “king of customizations” by Peterbilt inc., this model is designed to seamlessly incorporate an abundance of aftermarket accessories, neat add-ons, and custom parts. It’s among the best trucks to buy if you’re looking to truly “trick your truck.”

Prioritize Your Customization Goals

Are you looking for:

Performance Upgrades: larger exhaust pipes, fuel tanks, new turbochargers, etc.
Visual Enhancements: shiny chrome bumpers, visors, hood emblems, and lighting mounts.
Interior Cab Comfort: more beautiful dashboard accessories, comfortable seats, cushions, and sleeper beds.

Choose a Theme

Ideally, you want to pair your upgrades together to match a certain “theme” - a particular vision you have for your big rig. Classic vintage/old school style? Modern or aerodynamic aesthetic? Custom truck show build? The practical, rugged workhorse? You name it.

Know Your Budget

Unlimited budget spend for aftermarket upgrades is fine, but in reality, tricking out a truck is a slow burn where you invest little by little.

#1. Enhance Your Exterior Truck Lighting ASAP

Headlights

Enhancing your front-end headlights, from the housings to the bulbs, will help you to quickly actualize the theme you’re going for - be it retro-looking rounded lights or modern black-out LEDs.

Modern High-Power LED Blackout and Chrome Headlights

Chrome Classic, Vintage PB Style Headlight

Modern Rounded Headlight Styles

Cab Lights and Marker Lights

Cab lights or marker lights are a great way to add more visibility and nighttime driving safety to your rig while accentuating the natural design of your sleeper cab with dramatic lighting styles.

Watermelon Grakon Marker Lighting

Beehive Cab Lights

Driving Lights and Fog Lights

Driving lights add to the functionality of your rig. But depending on how you mount them, they can add a ton of uniqueness to the exterior style of your Peterbilty truck.

Stop-Turn Brake Lightbar (Amber or Red)

Clear-Lens High-Powered 10 Dio Driving Light

Air Cleaner Lights

Front-Facing Watermelon Style Air Cleaner Lights

Beehive Air Cleaner Lights

Donaldson Style Air Cleaner Light

#2. Front-End Enhancements

Stainless Steel Drop Visors

Among the biggest benefits of investing in aftermarket visors are decreased sun glare, improved style cohesion, and aerodynamic capacity.

Wicked Visors

These aren't for everyone. The wicked visor style is an aggressive, stand-out design that demands attention. It's great for custom show truck setups. More often than not, drivers go with a straight drop or blind mount curved design - a more mellow alternative that blends in with other stainless steel trim and accessories.

Blind Mount Drop Visor

The blind mount visors boast a cleaner, more polished look to the front end.

Bowtie Visor Styles

Untie Visor

Grilles

Custom grilles to personalize your truck's appearance.

Peterbilt 389 Punch Grilles

To get the most granular customization possible, go with a punch grille. These can be custom-made into any design pattern and shape that you want.

Peterbilt 389 Louvered Grilles

Louvered grilles allow you to complete a retro,vintage-style setup to your rig.

Horizontal or Vertical Grilles

Horizontal or vertical grille bars can give an upgright, imposing look to the front end of your Peterbilt. The horizontal bars can add the appearance of width to the vehicle.

Grille Guards

Protect your investment with a front-end grille guard. It not only boasts an impressive exterior appeal, most insurance companies will give you a discount if they know you’ve installed one on your rig.

Here’s the deal.

If you want to put some extra weight on your commercial truck while getting the maximum defense capacity, there’s really no other choice than a HERD bumper grille guard.

These stainless steel products come in a variety of styles, like Big Tex, Super Road Train, and Defender 2 Post, and often require two people to install correctly.

Front-Bumpers

Front bumpers won’t protect your rig from damage - that’s where the guards come in - but they will dramatically enhance the style of your ride.

If you’re looking for the fastest way to start enhancing the exterior appeal of your rig for a truck show, slap on a matching bumper, visor, and grille.

The style choices are borderline endless.

American Box End

American Mitered End

American Rolled End
Standard Box End
Standard Mitered End

Standard Rolled End

Texas Boxed End

Texas Hand Formed

Light-Hole Cutout Bumpers

#3. Match Your Hoods & Front Fenders

Custom Aftermarket Hoods

Replacing your existing hood with an aftermarket fiberglass replacement hood is one way to provide a more classic, vintage style look to your rig.

Front Fenders

Matching your new hood with a pair of front fenders is ideal. Stainless steel material will match the rest of your polished exterior pieces; aluminum material can be easily painted for more personality;

Fenders can also moderately reduce road debris so that your new hood gets some added protection from scuffs.

Front Fender Guards with Fusion Light Bezels

#4. Polished Exhaust Chrome Stacks

This is one of the best ways to enhance the visual appeal of your big rig. Not only that, exhaust upgrades also offer a performance boost. The larger the pipe, the more exhaust flow gets released, and the sound profile can change too!

American Eagle Long Drop Exhaust Stacks

American Eagle carries styles like Goncho, West Coast Turnout, Mitered Cut, Flat Top, and more.

#5. Customize the Interior Dashboard with Accessories

The traditional flat panel dash offers plenty of room for aftermarket custom gauges and switches so you can blend a classic design with the original modern, clean look.

New Gauges and Switches

Isspro Gauges

Chrome gauges visor covers

Gauge bezels and load weight gauges

Tips: Shop for Monthly Steals and Deals

Compare and contrast pricing from aftermarket dealers and keep a lookout for seasonal deals and flash sales for your truck model. Aftermarket parts offer an affordable alternative to OEM parts.

Start with smaller enhancements and work your way up, as the months pass, you’ll get closer to getting a truck-show-ready Peterbilt 389 model that you can be proud of.

Customize Your Peterbilt 389 Semi Truck with 4 State Trucks

For more information about design style choices, take a look at our guides:

If you need help finding the right parts, contact one of our team members at 4 State Trucks today.