Born of a hot rodding father, Pete grew up in El Monte, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles, and started cruisin’ the boulevards with his friends around 1955. It was an influential time for a young man bitten by the hot rod bug.

Pete’s first hot rod was a 1932 roadster, but he was in love with Gil Granuci's A coupe. So he sold the body, bought a Model A coupe, and channeled it over the Deuce rails.

Like most enthusiasts, Pete went through 
a string of cars, wheeling and dealing his way up market until he could afford a new 1961 T-bird, which instantly became a semi-custom valley cruiser.

At the time, Pete was working as a product development technician at Clayton Industries, manufacturer of dynamometers. During his tenure, he met Mike Hoag, who had left Blair’s to form M & S Welding with Sherm Gunn and they were building drag cars. Pete wanted to work for them, so he took welding classes at night until they gave him a part-time job. In 1971, he left Clayton and went to work at Blair’s, a speed shop with a history reaching as far back as Alex Xydias’ SO-CAL emporium.

A member of the Vintage Tin Hot Rod Club, Pete began work on a chopped 1934 coupe that would have a seminal impact on his life and the hot rod world.

Finished in traditional black and flames, the coupe was photographed for the cover of the November 1973 issue of Rod & Custom, along with a similarly chopped canary yellow coupe of Jim “Jake” Jacobs. The two rodders hit it off and decided to start a small hot rod repair business in Temple City, CA. Then came the call from Hollywood—specifically Howie Horowitz, producer of the hugely successful Batman series. He wanted Pete’s car for 
a made-for-TV movie called The California Kid. The show starred a young actor named Martin Sheen.

"The Kid" put Pete and Jake’s Hot Rod Parts on the map, and the pair ran 
a thriving business that, because of their innovative style and seat-of-the-pants marketing savvy, took the hot rod business out of the backyard and into the mainstream.