History Shakey Jake...Man or Myth

Being a (wannabe) striper, seems like everyone has a story to tell of the infamous "Shakey Jake", Hot Rodders, Goldchainers etc. Does this person exist? I always thought he was an urban legend? The story goes he always shook like a big dog in heat until he picked up his brush then his lines flowed like no other.
Any proof this man existed? whats the story?
Just curious

 

no myth.............. dont know if he's still around or gone to Hot Rod heaven though

 

There was a Shakey Jake whose work was anything but Shakey. I believe the name was Chuck Babbitt. He was big into Volkswagons and I think he even drove one with 59 Caddy fins. The guys lines were thin like mine. I do know that he passed on years ago. I loved the work he did on my friends chopped merc.

 

Shakey Jake. real deal.
Passed on a few years ago.

 

I always heard he was a good sander, a 1/4 sheet in each hand and lean him on a fender and he's good to go.

 

thats not nice.......................................
but it sure was funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so we know who, but when and where???

 

He was a well know striper here in So Cal. He died over 10 years ago.

Got his nick name because his hands would shake pretty bad right up to the instant he laid the brush down, then smooth as could be.

 

He died in 91. The Volkswagon mags in the 70s had tons of features and one even had an interview. I dont think the guy was a drinker or anything. He was in Southern California.

 

How could that be? I would of like to have seen him work, lived here my whole life and never heard of him.

 

There was also a guy called "Crow" that was around So cal many moons back,he was shaky also but "medicated" before he striped

 

He had many VW bugs , a stock split window bug , a custom 69 bug with a split window welded in the back , and the best was his worst of show bug, I will try and find a picture of it

the few times I went over to his house he was always a great host

Beaulieu

 

I don't know if this is the same guy, but I have an old Kurtis quarter midget that was painted in 1961 and still wears the "as raced" paint job. It looks pretty cool, so I do not plan to repaint it. This car was raced in central and southern California. Kenny.

 

i remember he did a van for a buddy back in 74 or so........he existed


skull

 

Kenny, still hidden stuff R ya and bringing it out little buy little!

 

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Kenny, still hidden stuff R ya and bringing it out little buy little!


Ha ha ha !!!! My wife told me the same thing just the other night !!! LOL !!! Kenny.

 

I met "The Shaker" a couple of times. I didn't know him well but he was a good friend of my cousins down in O.C. He was a very kind and caring man.
Through a couple of trades with my cousin I ended up with Shakey's 1950 Buick which I eventually sold to Troy Trepanier and he later turned it into the Bulbous Buick seen in Hot Rod Magazine and the Taco Bell commercial. I also recall Shakey showing me his 1930's Gibson Harp Guitar, one of his prized possessions. This all occurred about one month before his passing. Shakey striped many of my cousins cars as well as lots of his friends cars.

 

My research shows that Shakey Jake (aka Chuck Babbitt) died in October 1987.

He's on the right in this picture...

 

Here ia a picture that frenchy took back in Bug In days (pre 85)

 

Chuck Babbitt was a friend of mine, Yes he was the real deal and to this day I will say that he was one of if not the best pinstripper I ever knew. His choice of color and control over thin lines were legendary. When I worked for Auto Haus in the 70's we used to set up an area inside the store and have Shaky come in and stripe right on the floor of the store, people would just stand around in awe. Used to tell everyone his real name was Ed G. Farnsworth, so we called him Edgy at times!

When personalized License Plates became reality (Vanity Plates) in California he ordered about 100 different ones with every cool thing he could think of and then sold them through the Pennysaver. Made a butt load of money, think what he could have done if Ebay had been around!

Here is his BUG, yes those are Real BRM's on there;

 

Hey Hotroddon I also worked for Autohaus in the late 70s and 80s in westminster. I own a vw shop in newport beach now and have a customer Larry that comes in now and then that talks to Jakes ex all the time as a matter of fact we are trying to buy a vw bug with a v8 60 in it that jake was building years ago. Here is a copy of the front page of a hot rod paper from 1987 with Shakey Jakes name on it that he brought me last week. Danny / Duecevw

 

Shakey was deffinetley the real deal , and I'm proud to say a very good friend. When he passed it was after a long battle with cancer. Back in the 70's when one of us was striping a car that belonged to a mutual friend , we would on occassion when we would sign our name to our striping ,write a little note to each other on that persons vehicle. There's a member of my roadster club that has a '32 coupe that still wears some "shakey jake " striping . I still miss him to this day .

 

Any body that was in the VW scene in the 70's knows of Shaky. He was also a car show judge at the Bug - In in Orange County. I am proud to say that he did judge one of my Cal Looker VW ( 1971 ). He also had brought a VW at one of the Bug Ins which had a Ford flathead V8 under the hood as a project. Shaky also had his split window custom at the 1974 Anaheim convention Center Ca. Best pinstriper in my book.

Thanks
Frenchy ( Doc Detail )

 

Charles Babbit was also a great sign painter. He is the reason I got into lettering and pinstriping. I was about 13 when I watched him letter the address numbers on the glass of my dad's office furniture store. He also lettered race cars for Don Burns Porsche and VW. He was a fireman who was on disability. I think he got in trouble when they found out he was pinstriping Volkswagons! His VW with the '59 Cadillac tail fins also had a chandelier hanging from the roof over the back seat, and a giant glob of One Shot in every color mounded up on the hood. I thank him for my life long career.

 

i met him once at the pomona swapmeet. had a bug for sale, i remember it had a split window welded in and porsche decals on the bottom, upside down, and other things going on with it....

 

Chuck striped my Corvair roadster at the 73' Tulsa nationals for free cause he liked it. Later I put a v8 Chev in a 47 chev for him. Jerry Slattery did a feature
on it in Street Rodder nov 79'. Very cool guy.

 

I never met Shakey Jake, but my old buddy Ed Newett in Costa Mesa has told me a bunch of stories about Shakey when they used to hang out together.

Real cool thing is when I first met Ed back in '04, I was on vacation from New Zealand to go out to Bonneville with a couple other Kiwis, and thru' some connections, we got to crew for Ed and the Eight Ball team.
When Ed learned I was a sign painter he asked/told me that I was gonna' do some extra lettering on the car for him. He took me down the street to pick up some 1-shot, then we went back to his place where he proceeded to pull out Shakey's old brushes for me to use!

Bear

 

I forgot that car the article was for him! I just had that one out of the collection not more than a month ago, studying how to do it for client that wants me to do that same swap.

 

I think somewhere in my photos I have one of him striping your roadster. Some of these guys think that they have low profile cars "now", that one was like driving a skateboard down the highway.

He had a fair size audience every time he striped a car that weekend.

 

shakey jake was a name he gave himself. when he was a kid, his friends would refer to handicapped people as a shakey jake. he thought it would be funny/ironic for a "shakey jake" to be a pinstriper. his hands did not shake. he was the best striper I've ever seen. he died of cancer, most likely due to years of using toxic cleaners while striping. you can read about him in herb Martinez's guide to pinstriping book. he was very well known in the vw and Porsche world in southern California. he built a best of show bug-in winner, and a worst of show bug-in winner. hope this clears a few things up.

 

Chuck "Shakey Jake" Babbitt was real and a great pinstriper. I met him years ago while we were in Cali. Jake Hudson (Jakes Pinstriping orig from Ft Worth, I believe is in Vegas now) was often called Shakey Jake as well. Jake H was pretty steady. I really liked Chucks color fades.