Jimmy Shine Shine on!

Steve Havelock gets up close and personal with Jimmy Shine, who was a hot rod apprentice to Pete Chapouris, but ultimately has become an automotive celebrity in his own right today…

- Steve Havelock

Having just turned 50, Jimmy is a well-known and respected name in hot rod and Bonneville Salt Flats record-breaking circles. He guested on numerous TV shows before starring in shows of his own including Hardshine, Weaponizers, Car Warriors and Rockin’ Roadsters. He also runs his own successful workshop. He has built and worked on scores of amazing cars and has rubbed shoulders and made friends with many a celebrity, including ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. Here, he tells us enthusiastically about his interesting and fun life.

“My real name is Falschlehner, but as a kid I was called anything from Flashlight to Flashhammer. I got some real dumb nicknames, but Shine stuck and that’s how everybody knows me.”

Jimmy grew up in the free-and-easy Seventies near the beach and orange groves of Orange County, California. His dad, Denny, was a hot rodder, a drag racer, an off-road motorcycle racer, a surfer and a dune buggy fan. No wonder that much of this rubbed off on Jimmy and his two brothers, Jon and Ned. Jimmy learnt his fabricating, mechanical and welding skills from his dad and started building his own cars for fun. When he was just 14 he bought a rusty old wreck of a 1940 Willys pick-up truck for $950 which he describes as “a hunk of crap, but I loved it”. He made a new square tube chassis for it and sold the original one for $50, and he designed and built a four-link suspension. He fitted a 327cu in Chevy V8 and Turbo 400 transmission. Two years and two days later he drove it for the first time. He says it’s still around.