Jack Peebles was an expert auto upholster who worked on many early hot rods and custom cars. Peebles’ work took many show awards for his customers. Well known examples include Carl Tjorhom's 1932 Ford roadster and one version of Fred Welsh’s 1940 Ford sedan.

Coming out of the Navy, Jack learned the trade his brother-in-law was in by taking an apprenticeship. Word of mouth of his skill got around the custom car and hot rod world, and a three-car back alley garage in Vancouver was a busy spot.

Jack has stories for many of the cars he worked on. The Fred Welsh car upholstery was redone by Jack for a Seattle show, with his wife helping, and the car won everything, including the upholstery award at the show. Jack figured that car was the best looking car ever in the Pacific northwest. One sidebar was that even though it won all the awards the prize of a new motor for the best car was not given to Fred, apparently because he was from Canada and not the US Ron Farmer went to bat for Fred, but Jack still isn’t sure if Fred ever got the motor he was supposed to have won.

JACK PEEBLES - Inducted 2002

Supporter - Hot Rod, Custom Car and Drag Racing

by Brian Pratt, 2004

Tjorhom’s 1932 Ford roadster  (George Bell collection)

Jack Peebles, 2002

One time, says Jack, he took his niece to a British Columbia Custom Car Association car show, and she started noting that his name was on the information cards of one show car, then another, and another. Jack figures he probably did the upholstery for all the cars in the show. While he didn’t get any trophies for his work on the custom cars he has kept photo albums of the cars.

He also did work for motorcycle riders like Trev Deeley. As well, truck bed covers were done by Jack individually back then, now are standard option for pickups. And he did work on vintage cars that appeared at Expo 86.

He put close to 50 years in the automotive upholstery business at various locations until he retired in the mid-1990s. Just to show he always has his mind on the business, he was at a drag race near Sechelt in recent years where Jack Williams had brought the old Syndicate Scuderia gas dragster for a demonstration run. Jack Peebles remembered Williams dropping a trouble light on the seat of the dragster years before, melting a hole in the seat. When the dragster showed up, decades later, Peebles noted that the seat had been repaired with a patch, a thing Jack Peebles could have completely replaced to show quality in no time.