History Custom Car builder Spotlight: AYALA BROTHERS

Yes true, I figured when youve had something that long, you can do what ever the hell ya want to it. LOL If itwas one of the cars, Id be singin a different song.

 

LOL well there is always that point for sure

 

I wonder if they hung the grille in the shop when they got rid of the truck, thats what I always imagined happened to them . There was the lettering on the tailgate too.

 

I sure wish I could of seen this car race Jesse Lopez in his ford,he told me that they raced a couple of times and each race was pretty close but this car didnt win.Jesse Lopez.......... another guy who cared more about speed then he cared about Customs.I enjoy hearing about any old stories that have to do with the Ayala Brothers.

 

Hey Jeff do you know what Gil ran under the hood? Hopped up flathead? Did he keep the motor and move it from one custom to the next or did he have a new one built for each car?

 

Here is one more snapshot of Gil's 1942-46 Ford Coupe... at one of the dry-lakes.
To bad the whole car is not shown in this photo, but what we can see is the perfect profile and flow of the chopped top.

From the David E. Zivot Collection

 

Their stuff was SO SMOOTH and flowing it was incredible!

 

hi rik. there is nothing i can say that hasent been said about you and your knowledge about old kustoms by the ayala bros. and barris bros. show us more kustoms and semi kustoms by the ayala bros. me and some of my buddys had some semi kustoms built by them in the mid 50s. we lived in the la verne and pomona area back then. keep them photos comming. props to you rik.

 

rik. the photo of this kustom 40. merc is awesome. rigth on.

 

Ron Kellogg is offering some early photos that where taken at Gil's Auto Body works as part of the Lyne Yakel Collection. Some have been shown here already. But this photo of a 1941 Ford Custom with Padded top has not been shown in this thread.
I'm not sure if this is an Ayala Custom, but the photo is taken at Gil's shop for sure. I have compared this photo with some others I had, and all the details match.
The only thing I don't know is who's 1941 Ford was this. the photo was taken in the 1940's probably 1948. Wally Welch had his 1941 Ford by then, and had is already chopped with Padded Top, but his car was very deep maroon in its first version. I guess there where many CUstoms like this cruising the streets of LA in 1948... Would love to see the rest of the car.

 

Memo Ortege - the second owner of the Gil Ayala 1942 Ford Coupe - tipped me on this movie footage that was filmed at the Ayala Shop in 1979.

Boulevard Night is the title of the movie, about lowriders and gangs. The shop has been turned into a Low Rider work shop. And the small building on the corner where Gil had his House of Chrome is now the Upholstery shop.

Here is a link to the first part of the movie (there are 11 parts on Youtube) and shots taken at the shop are scattered around thru out the movie. The first scene at the old Gil's Auto Body Works shop starts at 8:39

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Vls9LPSCkVs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


And here are a few screen shots.

 

Pretty sweet footage of some sacred ground.Thanks for posting Rik.

 

Well, I'll be damned!

 

Looks like im gonna be buying this movie!!

 

great shot of the layout of the shop.I imagine there are out takes that might show more cars.

 

Thanks for the tip Rik. Can you imagine how cool it would be if there was footage like that from the late 40's early 50's. Ahh well one can dream.

 

Yes .... To bad Marty Mcfly wasnt into customs. Yep ...thats that time machine I always dreaming of,sure would be able to answer a lot of questons.

 

LOL Nike is selling his shoes now so maybe someday.

 

The actual shoes he wore in the movie sold for something like $37,500. LOL! Thats some crazy shit!!

Back to the car. I love it anyways!!!

 

Bringing this back up for some history lessons. Maybe someone new might see the big difference in what was done back in the day. They did things the right way. not over chopping and having everything laying on the ground looking like its broken.

 

Ayala shop put out some fine customs,but their cars as did most customs of the era did sit to high.That was probably due to the fact that you could only get as low as the suspension allowed,even after adding longer shackles...they still sat high.I'm sure if they had bags or hydros back then they would have been used quite a bit.Ayalas still rule when all is said and done.

 

The reason the cars sat high was because almost every single one had a hopped up engine and were raced on a weekly basis.Dont forget these guys were more concerned with speed and performance then being low and going to sit around all day at carshows.

 

good point.

 

Eeeeeh... Say what?

 

"most customs of the era did sit to high"
When I look at the little books, I see a little of customs that sat pretty low.My merc sat pretty low when it appeared in Car Craft in 1957.The frame was c-notched and had casters.It also had a built flathead.I don't think mine was the exception.

 

Grate post !!!!

 

Lets bring this back for the Mayor of Olympic Blvd.

 

the early ('40s)customs sat high for the most part.If you look at gils '46,or the '40 merc as examples.

 

DUDE!! You need to really look better or get your eyes checked! I've studied on the hight of these cars for years. The 2 cars your talking about are like the same hight as all the rest. Look at the front bumper. Most of the customs had the bumpers inline with the center of the wheels. So these 2 car must be ready to go off road. WOW! Look again!

 

I have always wondered what happened to that 40 Merc. It would be awesome if it were still around.