History Custom Car builder Spotlight: AYALA BROTHERS

Wally seemed to like trim on his cars his '41 had an unusual amount of trim left on if for the time as well.

 

Did the Ayala shop build all of Wallys cars? Was it 2 cars only?or did he have them build others.

 

History lesson time !!!!

 

Great customs!!!! These are not over chopped,looking broke on the ground, and flow from the front to the back. I love these threads!!

 

This picture is great right here,that car was just so slick.I wish we knew what happened to it or where it is today.

 

The flow on that roof Jeff is AMAZING!!

 

I believe that the Ayala's started this too. The way the roof flows is AMAZING. I hadnt seen any other 49-52 chevy's the Barris's did that flow like this one does.

 

Ya I have thought so myself ^^^^^^ This chevy is just so nice.I really want to try to find more info on this,I think Rik might know a little about this car's early history.

 

If Rik has more history on Dan's car i would like to know. This car is the reason i got a chevy.

 

Al Garcia's Ford is another heartbreaker,this thing just looks so good with this grill.Havn't seen this front end & grill treatment on 40's car's too much.I think it looks good on this beauty and I think the Auto Butcher's plaque goes pretty good with the grill,im not sure why but it just seems right.

 

I wish I did know more about it. I have asked a lot of people about this car, people who where there at the time it would have been built. SOme said the car might have been at the Ayala's... but none of the people I talked to could confirm it. SO the search is still on...
I think it is started and chopped at the Ayala's, but it could also be that Sam was inspired by other cars done by the Ayala's.... hopefully one day we will know.


Here is another great photo of the car that I was able to copy... It has been seen before in several publications. But not this sharp.

 

That is a high quality shot Rik ^^^. Looks great

 

Of all the pictures i have seen of gils '42-'46 ford,i have yet to see one from the rear view when it had the original bumpers as opposed to the ribbed bumpers it had later.have i missed a picture as described.

 

I have never seen that either. But your post did check me my files another time and I noticed that at the snapshots taken at the dry lake the car had the Ford bumper on the front, but the Ribbed 1949 Plymouth was already on the back.
None of those photos show both bumpers at the same time, but the cars in the background match up so the photos where taken the same day.


Plymouth rear bumper.



46-48 Ford front bumper.

 

Any updates on this 1940's Gil Ayala roadster???

 

Stop it! I can't take any more, these sweet rides are off the hook. Wow!! These classics are super roots rides that defy coolness. Thanx for the memories! ~sololobo~

 

Some time ago I was contacted by a guy who was interested in buying a Custom 1950 Buick. He asked me if I knew anything about the car. The seller claimed it was an old Ayala built Custom, but he had no real proof in ways of photos. The potential buyer emailed me the photos which you can see below.

I looked at the photos, and noticed the rather nice chop, but strange looking 1950 Ford taillights, Corvette grille, grille surround, Stock book hood scoops, and the section added to the cowl behind the shortened hood with non rounded rear hood corners, and then of coarse the rather modern interior, and welded and smoothed bumper bolts. I asked a few people that I know where visiting the Ayala shop in the years this car was claimed to be built, and none seamed to remember this particular Buick.

So I emailed the guy who contacted me that I doubted it was an Ayala built. Perhaps they could have chopped it, but all the other custom work done on it did not feel like the Ayala quality I'm familiar with. And without some real proof in words or photos I seriously doubt if the history described by the seller was genuine. With this info the potential buyer contacted the seller again and he came up with a photo of the Barris shop that he had seen on my site that shows this 1950 Buick in the back ground, and according the seller was made while the then owner was talking inside about Sam Barris chopping his Buick.

Well the photo was the one posted below. First of all it was taken in either 1951 or 1952, not stroking with the rest of the story which was happening after the Sam Barris 1950 Buick was on the cover of Rod & Custom February 1954. The owner of the Buick was so impressed with Sam's Buick that he wanted Sam to built him one based on his Buick. Sam did not want to tackle such a difficult job again??? So he went to the Ayala's instead.
And secondly the car in the back ground was not even the same type as the subject car. However this was the only "evidence" the seller had at this point.

Last week I received my copy of TRJ #53 and I was surprised to find three photos of this same Buick on page 10 stating it was indeed an Ayala built Custom Car. The article was submitted by Spencer Murray.
I have never doubted anything done by Spencer.. but in this case? I'm not really sure if this is really an Ayala built Custom Car or just a case of an owner that really wants everybody to believe this is an original mid 1950's built Ayala Custom?

My reasons to doubt this is an actual Ayala Custom are the other customizing that are don to this car. The Chop I can see that could have been done by the Ayala's but I have some serious doubts the Ayala's would put 1950 Ford taillights on an odd angle in unaltered rear fenders in 1954-55. Let alone all the other Custom modifications.

On the internet there are several cars For Sale sites that featured this car, and all had this same story written by the seller about its Ayala history... but no evidence it really is.


So does anybody on here knows more about this Buick? Is it an older built custom done by the Ayala's, or is it a 1980's 90's built custom. I hope I'm wrong and it is an Ayala Custom, because it would be really neat to have another one... but...


Here is the photo that the then seller mentioned his car was in the background. (the car on top of the Jesse Lopez Ford roof)





And the Buick... Ayala Custom or?











Taillights like this done in 1954 cannot be the work of the Ayala's!

 

I have to agree. AWESOME POST !!

 

Rik:

I examined that car thoroughly when it was in Sturgeon Bay Wi in 2010. I came to the same conclusion as you did. The area around the back window and the rear of the quarter windows was not the best worksmanship. There were just too many modern modifications on it to convince me that it was an Ayala car.

Even if those had been done in the later years the lack of any history or anyone to testify to it's origins makes the case to me that it is a recently built (after 1960) car.

BB

 

You can add my vote that its not an Ayala car !

 

I don't see the smooth lines indicative of Ayala customs that survive in pics or in person.

 

Rik, I see a Cadillac above the Jack Stewart Ford in that picture and a Chevy above the Jesse Lopez Ford...don't see any Buick...

That Buick for sale has a nice-flowing chop, and I remember seeing it pop up for sale...but I doubt it's an original Ayala kustom as well. Nice care anyway...maybe they did do just the chop? I agree with what you mentioned about what is done to the rest of the car...

 

I hope that somebody who worked on this 1950 Buick during the "restoration" sees this. It would be great to hear the stories of some people who saw this car up close and perhaps in bare metal, or the body from the inside.

 

Hm, very interesting. I wonder why Spence claimed that it was an Ayala car if it wasn't. He should know better. During my custom car research over the years I'm actually surprised that I haven't bumped into more Ayala cars then I have. And most of the cars are done in the late 40s and early 50s. Almost none mid to late 1950s... based on this it is actually hard for med to define an Ayala car. Yes we all know how good the few known ones looked, but what about the rest? Anyhow, without any proofs, old reliable stories or names on previous owners it could be a 50/50 chance that the Ayalas had something to do with this car at one time. But you never know, I will scan a Barris restyled car I bumped into in an old hartford autorama program a month or two ago. It was a mid 50s east coast car, and if somebody would have showed up here stating it was a barris car not a single soul would have believed him

 

Sondre,
I'm very well aware that Barris, Ayala, and most likely other major body shops in the 1940's to late 1950's turned out some Custom Cars that where say different than the beautiful Custom Cars we all admire so much from the magazines and the books that where published back then and now.

But its just the combination of things that led me to believe the story told in TRJ #53 on this 1950 Buick is not quite right. And it sounds to me like the owner, or former owner, or car salesman just wants everybody to believe this car has a lot more history to it than it really has... for obvious reasons.

It amazes me to that Spence and TRJ published it without proper confirmation of this car's history.

It reminds me of this 1947 Ford that was mentioned on this thread post #89 and up (photos have now been deleted by the guy). This car was for sale and the seller wanted everybody to believe us it was an original Ayala Custom as well.

It later turned out to be built by somebody else.. and not even in the 1940's or 1950's as can be seen in this post.

It also reminds of the 1949 Mercury that Barry Mazza built in the 1990's. He built is a near clone of the Louis Bettancourt Mercury, but with significant differences like straight B-Pillars.
After Barry sold the car a new owner started to claim his car was the real Ayala/Barris built Bettancourt Mercury. And a lot of people who did not know to much about it started to believe this, and spread the word. The car was even part of a prestigious Barris display at one of the outdoor Concours show, and being showed there as an original Barris Custom. And also got some magazine exposure as the real car.

So I really hope somebody who knows this car better than I do comes along and does his story on this post so that we know the whole and real story on this car.

 

I agree with you Rik, in 99% of the cases this happens because someone is wanting to earn extra money off their cars, or have been naive enough to buy the car believing the story. It happens from time to time that people mails me info on cars they own claiming that it is a barris car, and they want me to add it to Kustomrama... I'm sure you get plenty of those too! In 99% of these cases the car is also currently for sale. Most of these cars have Barris crests glued on recent years Many of them are also obviously old builds, and in those cases I advise them to try to research the story of the car, and sell it for what it is instead of writing a fishy story marketing it as yet a "Barris" car. I'm sure a true and interesting story will sell the car much better then yet another unknown Barris car

 

Im glad there were more pictures posted of this Buick.I have to admit when I first opened to it in the new TRJ I was pretty excited.Then I began checking the chop and then the tailights and other parts and I wasn't as excited anymore.I had chatted with Rik a little bit and then I was just stuck thinking about it.Not only are there no pictures of this car but there are no documentation of this car racing at any of the lakebeds or maybe I just havnt seen a tag yet.Im sure people would of remembered or took pictures of a chopped Buick hauling ass across the lakebed.I just dont think this car would be a secret all this time but who know's I might be wrong.The whole car looks nothing like a product of Olympic Blvd at least to me it doesnt.I think this car was built in the era they did the interior in.I hoped to be proven wrong because I am one of the biggest Ayala fan's around.

 

The more I look at this car the more it looks like it came from Olympic Blvd.I wonder how it was under the hood? That would even help out more.

 

I would really love to see more pictures of this truck right here.It seems that it doesn't ever get mentioned and I think it is a GREAT looking truck with a lot of class.The Ayala brothers had some great looking shop trucks and I bet people used to love to see them trucks cruising around Olympic Blvd.

 

Great post I enjoyed it and there was some sick customs...