History Custom Car builder Spotlight: AYALA BROTHERS

Looks slightly better with the stock headlights and bumpers on it...

I like it with the wires on it too.

 

I remember those and with custom tassles on the ends of the grips. Not the ones you saw in stores, but one strip of leather, long enough to touch the ground.

Great post, I've wanted to more about these builders for a while.

 

Is that 40 mercadi still around? What a great car.

And their still living merc is one of my favorites ever. So smooth.

 

Excellent! thanks for the schoolin' very kewl thread!

_T

 

Here is a bit larger picture of the 40 Merc still in primer. And yes I too like the stock front much better than the later one.



And to me it still look a bit strange seeing such a nice custom car on all stripped down on the lakes ready to race.




And here is a very blurry picture I found somewhere on the internet. It was on a wall behind a model of this Merc. And I had to really blow it up a lot. I hope to find a sharper picture of it. When I do I will post it for sure.

 

Nice job, thanks.

 

Thanks for all the nice comments. It makes me want to show more photo's

To show that not only the 40 Merc was raced hard... here is the Griffith 42 Ford at the Saugus drag race in '51.




Here is another very slick custom built by Gil Ayala. this time a 42 Coupe with a very nice sloop on the rear of the top.




A color photo of the first version of the Welsh Mercury... as it appeared on the cover of the April 52 Hop Up magazine.




And another photo of the article inside the Hop Up magazine with a nice model sitting on top of the front vender. what a great picture this is.

 

i want those dagmars

 

Another Ayala car which later was finished by the Barris' Bros (like the Bettancourt Merc) is Jack Stewart's '41 Ford.It also shows the Ayala trademark,full fadeaway fenders.The top first was chopped at Regg Schlemmer's shop and the Ayalas rechopped it later as Stewart wasn't happy with the looks.They also installed the '49 Cad grille and reworked the hood and fenders to resemble the look of a then new '49-'51 Ford.The car was powered by a Flathead Cadillac engine.According to some info out of the "American Custom Car" Stwart took the car to the Ayalas because the Barris' Bros already had too much work going on but after a 9 month stay at the Ayalas shop,George Barris detailed,primered and painted the car.Also written in the book and I think that's pretty interesting,is the reason why Stewart brought the car to the Barris' Bros later.Gil Ayala was caught street racing and was trying to get to Mexico.He had to spent 3 month in jail so he wasn't able to work on the car anymore...





This is how the restored car looks today.The owner is a certain Bob Drake and is not that Bob Drake of "Bob Drake Reproductions" fame.It's nice to see another survivor but I honestly have to admit the color doesn't suit the car.I think it has to be dark and for my taste the bright color also makes the car look "too molded" and somehow the car has no definition.I think the car needs some brightwork like window trim.On the other side,it looks totally organic the way it is.A look many of the early Customizers were aiming for.

 

Like Rikster already mentioned it's nice to see your compliments and kind words.I especially want to thank Cleatus,Lost Angel and of course Dave.Thank you !!! Well,YOU guys are BUILDING the cars I just talk about and I hope this will change soon.I simply had no money to buy a car yet so all I could do for now,beside my "Nothin' Special" Pan Chopper,was soak up as much as possible "soul food" to sate my never ending appetite for anything traditional on wheels,either it is a Custom,Hot Rod,Front Engine Dragster,Chopper or Bobber etc.It really is my fuckin' life.

 

This is EXACTLY what I mentioned I would like to do a story on a couple weeks ago! I have never seen all of the Ayala stuff gathered in one spot and here it is! If anybody has any more on them and thier shop please contact me and lets get this into print. 00Mack- I still want to do some custom history stories with you as well, have you moved and settled in yet? Thanks Jim

 

Thanks The FrenZ, I completely forgot about this custom beeing a Ayala cbuild custom as well. I have plenty of photo's of it.. even some of the car in progress. I will scan them over the weekend and post them her on Tueseday or so.

I agree with you on the color. It should be painted dark.. much more elegant.

 

This post rules...... posts like these need to be archived so they don't get lost.

 

ill vote for that!!! great thread!!

 

Great, great, great post guys! Rikster and The FrenZ along with Anthony White really know how to keep the Kustom fires burning and properly remembered.

My hats are off to ya's. Keep up the good work Rikster, these glimpses into history are good for our souls.

Joel

 

Welcome back Peter Pan of Chicago. Good to have you back.

Here is one more photo of Jack Stewart's Ford next to another great custom the Barris Built Lopez 41 Ford. This photo was taken at the Barris shop.

 

swdobbs, the Roach Pontiac article from which this picture came was in the May '52 issue of Hop Up (with the Ray Vega tub on the cover). Of course this issue is reproduced in Mark Morton's repop of the first year of Hop Up.

It's unfortunately only a single page article with three pictures. Neat car.

 

Not much doubt who built this GMC pickup featured in the first issue of Rods & Customs (Rod & Custom) May 1953.

This truck was later owned by Bonneville icon Bruce Geisler and painted pink, then known as the Geisler Construction Co. pickup. Bruce reacquired this truck several years ago and still owns it.

Bruce also bought my old 29 RPU a couple years ago at Bonneville.

Mick

 

I noticed my Jack Stewart pictures in this post where also missing after the crash so here they are once more.

the '41 in primer. Not sure if this photo was taken before or after it was taken to the Barris shop, perhaps oembody can identify the buildings in the back ground or so. Note that the front fender still has its carracter line, which later would be all smoothed... But this caracter line is from a 42-48 Ford fender, did they add 42 front fenders to this car? or is the car in fact a 42 and not a 41 Ford?




Rear corners of the roof where made by using pre shaped panels.




In this picture the taillights (or base to put then on to) look to be 46 Ford units. They where changed later into hand formed "flush" fitting units that would wrap around the fenders more.



The body was chaneled of the frame, and also the door sides and where the fade away extensions where made can be seen here.



Here the custom can be seen at a parking lot show in a white or light colored primer. The taillights have already been changed here.And so are the front fenders.

 

Jack Stewart showed his car at indoor shows when it was painted. He even made a nice wall to display it in front off. The windows are blocked out in this picture since the interior was not yet done. Apperently the car won many awards despite the fact it was not finished.






The custom at an other indoor show... this time with finished interior.





And one more picture showing the final shape of the taillights. Totally different than the taillights in the photo shown before of the custom in primer.

 

And are two more photo's of the now completely restored custom. I have to agree with The FrenZ, it should have been painted a much darker color, and also I don't really see the need for changing the rear bumper over the original version. The new rear bumper (turned upside down with upside down Chevy license plate guard) is rather ugly and totally inacurate.

 

I also came across two more photo's of the '55 Thunderbird that Ayala built. It is not really one of my favourites, but it shows that the Ayala's where still building in '55. I would love to see more of theire customs that I'am not aware of... there must be several, if not a lot others.

 

I showed a colorised photo of this picture in the beginning of this thread, but since its colorised I'am not sure how accurate it really is. I have been looking at this photo for quite some time and I think all those cars in this picture are actually Ayala built customs. How nice would it be to have other pictures of this group of cars taken for this photo shoot... Boy I would love to see those.

I will show them both since the color photo shows more on the left side of the photo while the black and white shows a bit more on the right side.





We know for sure that the primerd '40 Mercury that is beeing worked on is the Merc Gil Ayala build for themself.




The 41 Ford convertible in the back is Wally Welsh his Ayala built Ford



The car on the botom right side (colorised blue) could be the the Hank griffith '42 Ford with caddy rear fenders and fade aways fronts. In the black and white photo you can see the Caddy looking taillights of that car.



The yellow colored car on the center right could be John Geraghty's 40 Ford convertible. This car in the group photo clearly is a 40 Ford and has a sectioned hood... so does the Garaghty custom.

 

The green car on the top left side could be the '41 Ford Ayala build for D. Holland. This car also sport a fender trim, spotlights and smooth hood.




But I have no idear whos car the red car on the bottom left side is. It sure looks like another 41 Ford. But I have no pictures of that on in my archives. Anybody knows?

 

Rikster and others,
The Gil Ayala T-Bird lives! And it's for sale!

This just appeared in my mailbox this week: The Nov-Feb 2005 Trendsetter (KKOA magazine) has an ad in the "Midnight Auto Supply" want ads section.
The nasty hood scoop and tailfins appear to have been removed at some point.

Pic below. In case the print is illegible here's the text, minus the phone number, since I am not the one selling it, and this isn't the Classified section:

"FOR SALE: Gil Ayala's T-Bird as it sits now. Almost everything is missing. Has glass on one left door. I've had it for four years and just don't have/make time to work on it. Dan, Cal (562)xxx-xxxx."

 

Did you ever wonder where they got the inspiration from for Hop Up cover number 5 ?

 

Very cool post........I had to search to find this one.

Chris Nelson
Kansas

 

Here are a few more photo's of the GMC Ayala shop truck.

I guess the wild "flame" paint job and the chrome lettering on the back and in the grille opening sure drew some attention at shows and on the road.






Cadillac Sombrero's always look good on late 40's eraly 50's bodies... even pick-up trucks. The top has perfect proportions now.




Frenched headlights and a close up of the Lettering grille. That is a lot of cutting and prepping it for the plater. Quite inovative to come up with this style of grille for your roling advert.



49-50 Mercury taillights where mounted low on the rear fenders.




And inside everything was beautifully upholstered.

 

I wanted to add a few more photo's of the ayala built customs.

First is some more photo's of John Geraghty 's 40 Ford convertible.




A detail photo of the chopped windshield post and vent window.




A bit sharper and clearer photo of the Don Roach '49 Pontiac.





Interior photo of Al Garcia's 46 Ford.





Close up of the unussual grille

 

Again I came across some more photo's of the '55 T-Bird.

One of the most stricking features of this custom are the Oldsmobile wheel openiongs front and rear. The Lincoln taillights also look great in combination with the much longer and teardrop shaped openings. The material choice of the wings made from tubing and perforated metal just dont do it for me however the shape of those really look well in combination with the taillight/rear bumper and wheel opening.