Barry White, being born in a family of drag racers, was destined to work on cars. A taste for speed and beauty was ingrained in Barry when he was young during his visits to Orange Country Raceway and Lions Dragstrip. White began building drag cars at a young age, while Denny, his brother drove them. The brothers were soon consumed by the sport, but family life and a growing successful silk-screening business affected Barry's decision to get out of drag racing.

Barry built his first street rod in 1985. It was a 1929 Ford Highboy roadster and he built at at his home in Buena Park, Calif. His roadster edged a little closer to the finish line after coming home every day from screening T-shirts. The roadster was eventually bought by a local theme park called Disneyland, and was featured in their nightly "Blast From the Past" parade for a number of seasons. With this accomplishment under his belt, Whites's friends began contracting him to work on their street rods.

This pushed him into a larger shop in Costa Mesa, Calif. Several years later Barry finds himself in Corona, Calif., with a 10,000-square-foot shop where he is quickly running out of room!