Eric Peratt is quite the renaissance man. When he’s not busy running Pinkee’s Rod Shop, he’s a husband, father, and craft beer impressario.
To hotrod fans, Pinkee’s is well known as a big kahuna car builder garnering world wide attention for their meticulous, vintage-favored custom car builds. What you might not know is Peratt got his start in a very serendipitous way.
Pinkee’s was born after Peratt sold a personal ’33 Ford hotrod he was working on to a friend who went on to win the coveted Ridler award with it in 1998. Only in his twenties at the time, winning one of the most coveted custom car awards in the world changed his life forever.
From there, Pinkee’s was born and has grown into a full service shop with many awards under it’s belt. How they came up with their business name is an interesting story as well. Peratt wore pink shirts in college, and he was affectionally nicknamed, “Pinkee.” The rest, is history.
When we bumped into Peratt at the 2018 Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, CA, last week, we were keen to check out his latest work.
He brought a 1936 Ford roadster in metal to the show that’s getting the Pinkee’s treament i.e., every panel massaged and tweaked to perfection while still retaining the car’s original flavor.
Running a Ford 351W V8 with stack induction and Pinkee’s trademark fabbed engine jewlery, it rolls on a custom, in-house built frame and running gear. In fact, a sizable chunk of Pinkee’s business is selling frames and custom fabricated parts for muscle cars and hotrods. About the only that Pinkee’s doesn’t do in-house is interiors and for that, they’ll usually farm out to upholstery guru Sid Chavers.
They do rely on vendors to supply critical components to a build, but only of they match Pinkee’s dedication to details and reliability. For example, Eric said, “We really like Classic Instruments. We’ve used them for years and the are our “go to” guys for gauges.”
The ’36 looked great under the lights in Pomona and we can’t wait to see it next year at the 2019 GNRS, where Peratt says it will make it’s debut.
In an interesting twist, Peratt recently opened up a beer brewery off the main shop, separated only by a glass wall. So if you’re in Windsor, Colorado, stop by and grab a beer at “Mashlab” and check out the working rod shop next door!
Stay tuned to Power Automedia for all the updates on Pinkee’s, and the two aforementioned builds.