I am frequently asked how Jimmy got nicknamed “Shine”. Certainly there are all kinds of stories, but the simple truth is “Jimmy Shine” is a lot easier to get by on than James Dennis Falschlehner. Nothing taken against the time honored family name considering Jimmy’s dad’s nickname is “Flinger”, I rest my case. At any rate, Jimmy and his hot rod family resided in Temple City, Ca during my tenure with Pete & Jake’s Hot Rod Parts. Little did I know that the guy who was responsible for a very cool ’34 3-window coupe and the fabled “Lunar Duner” (a forerunner of the monster truck phenomenon) was actually Jimmy’s dad Denny. Dad of course influenced the son and by age 14 he had finished a Gasser styled Chevy powered ‘40 Willys pickup. Jimmy bumped around for a while honing his skills building hot rods, customs and bikes. Then in 1997 I learned of Jimmy through a mutual acquaintance. All in all he had the exact profile I was looking for in a potential fabricator for the car shop.  The word was if you can get past his tattoos and cocky attitude he’s your man. Well that was 9 years ago. He has gotten more tattoos and his attitude is only mildly tempered but the kid I hired has turned into quite a craftsman.

For the newcomer SO-CAL is not an easy place to crack. Expectations are high, the learning curve is long and arduous and to top it off the crew is renowned for its unmerciful teasing. Working closely with the SO-CAL crew Shine earned key positions on SO-CAL projects such as; Chuck DeHeras’ ‘40 Ford coupe, Ed Ducazau’s ’29 hiboy roadster, Dan Kruse’s timeless Harley, Gene Olson’s ’51 Merc convertible, the DH Special, the Fleet Special and the Ardun hiboy roadster among others. And in his spare time he built his iconic ’34 Ford pickup (at the cost of wife #2) a Bonneville race car and 2 very cool Harley’s. He is currently in the midst of building a ’57 Chevy Gasser for Todd Haas and prepping the Bonneville car for the 2006 season.

The glue in Jimmy’s life is family, hot rods, bikes and surfing. His wife Nikki, daughters Morgan and Kayla patiently share his time and agree “he’s a pretty cool dad”. Today Shine finds himself in a comfortable and yet challenging position. Comfortable at home and work, yes, but the future is the unseen challenge. So what’s next? Maybe Kayla and Morgan should have also included that their dad is “pretty much out of his mind”. Shine’s future is wide open and this is the site to keep track of the boy, if nothing else it is guaranteed good entertainment.

Pete Chapouris, President
SO-CAL Speed Shop