History Custom Car builder Spotlight: AYALA BROTHERS

That is a understatement but yes it would be great to have this car surface. I think it might be the first custom to use cad rear quarters .

 

The ride height of customs in the '50s varied almost as much as they do today, although they didn't yet use hydraulics or airbags. Most street driven cars were lowered with the simple methods like lowering blocks or cut coils, so a 4" drop was about the limit without using cutting (c-notching) or fabrication techniques.

There were exceptions; Watson and the Bellflower guys lowered their daily drivers severely, and just put up with scraping a lot of the time.

Show cars could get a lot lower, but they used channeling, c-notching, reworked A-arms, Z'd frames and other advanced techniques to get down there. Without bags or hydros they were stuck down there once they got down, so they were not terribly practical for daily use.

There were some articles by Spence Murray and Bob Hirohata about driving their cars cross country to Midwest shows, and one or both of them spoke about stopping partway to take out one set (of two) of lowering blocks in order to reduce bottoming while under way.

 

And lets not forget that photographers had all kinds of tricks to lower cars more during the photo shoots back then.
There are a lot of stories of people laying in the back seat, or sand bags in the trunk to get the desired looks.

 

I know for sure that they use lot of people in the trunks and in the back seat. my wifes family seen it happen at the barris shop.

 

So much info in this post, I find myself reading it over and over start to finnish. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

Cool,I didn't realize they did that.

 

Lets not forget this is an Ayala thread and dont get Georges antics confused with what happened at Gils shop.Most of the Ayala cars pictures are on a dragstrip or racing so I dont think they had tricks happening while pictures were being taken.

 

Very true! If everyone looked at the photos ofAyala's cars. They would see that they are at the same hight in all the photos. The Barris car changes hights in a lot of different photos. SHIT! look at the 46 ford racing the 40 chevy. The Alaya's are not gonna wiegh there cars down for a race just to look cool.

 

so you would agree that customs of the '40s sat a bit high.right

 

The 2 cars you pointed out didnt sit high. Not all of them sat high. like i said in my other post. Most of the the cars of the customs of the late 30s sat a bit higher. most of the customs cars in the early 40s- late 40s sat lower. If you studied tons of photos like i have done and noticed that there front bumpers where pretty much inline with the center of the wheel. The customs that got the people and other things in them to ge tthem lower for a photo was like in the early 50s and after that. Its a lot easier now and the last 20yrs to get these cars lower then they did back then. they didnt have all the after market stuff to use. it was all crude.

LIKE I SAID! Look at all the photos of the Ayala's. There cars where pretty much the same ride hight in ever photo.

 

Who in the world said that a lower car than a typical late 40's-early 50's
looks better?

To lay the cars on the ground to be the lowest has nothing to do with
designing the best looking car. To me, those überlow cars look like sh...

 

I personally think all the cars that we look at from the 40s sit pretty much just right. I dont look at any Ayala custom and say to myself ....." You know I really like that car but it just needs to be sitting way lower." I think they sat right where they needed to be.

 

Im with you. cars laying on the ground look like they are broken.

 

Totally agree!! I think that their height was perfectly suited to the style of car the Ayalas were building. There was not much, if anything, they didn't get right.

 

This car is parked on a street with a pretty heavy angle,if you look close at details like the headlights and other things you can see how angled this street really is.My point is... in this picture the car does look high but you have to consider the angle of the street next to the curb,it is not flat.

 

Sitting nice and level right here the height of this beauty is just right.I personally would NOT want to see this car any lower then this.Lets not forget it had a full race Evans Equipped flathead that was not just for looking good,it was used on the dragstrip so the car couldnt sit too low.I think this is just right for the way this car was driven.

 

ok so the 1st 2 photos are from most likely a race. so there isnt gonna be people in the car to get it low for a photo here. the 2nd photo is just amazing!! you can see that this car was pretty low. i dont know why someone would think it sat high.

 

HISTORY LESSON TIME!!

Just bring this back up incase someone might have missed it.

 

Another nice snapshot of Wally Welch his 1941 Ford parked in front of his fathers Drug Store in Burbanks.

From the Wally Welch Collection

 

This is a great photo!! What makes it great to me is that WELCH painted on the window behind the car. Great historical photo! Thanks Rik for all your hard work on getting these photos out to the world.

 

Another really nice photo of the Wally Welch 1941 Ford Convertible done by the the Ayala's. This one shows the nicely molded rear fenders and great looking taillights really well. Perfect stance, and the Auto Butchers E LA plaque hanging from the rear bumper.
Another photo from the Wally Welch photo album.

 

Oh wow......what a great picture showing this gorgeous custom.Look at them stunning molded fenders done by the Ayalas.

 

And here is another photo of Wally racing his 1941 Ford in its second version with all the body work handled by the Ayala's at Gil's Auto Body Works.

From the Wally Welch Photo Collection

 

Hey guys, I was rereading TRJ articles on the Ayalas last night and it occured to me that there has never, to my knowledge, been any mention of Al building a car for himself. Does anyone know if he ever did or if it was just Gil.

 

TRJ issue 40.
Pat shows a photo of a mildly sectioned 1953 Ford F-100 pick up that apparently Al built for himself.
Good thing is the car is still around...
page 40.

 

Thanks Rik. I must not have reread the caption last night. Doesn't seem like he ever got it finished either.

 

HISTORY LESSON TIME !!!!

Look these guys build cars that were CLASSY not TRASHY. Maybe for people will start building CLASSY CUSTOMS again.

 

I wonder if Wally's merc had a hopped up engine in it like almost all the other Ayala cars? When a chick tells you it's time to paint your already finished sled then its time to tell her to beat it and then go get another one.This car was fuckin stunning right here!

 

I have always liked the headlight treatment(Studebaker parts)..as well as the rest of the car.

 

Yes.... This looks awesome in the Ayala treatment.I wonder if the trim and beltline were left on because Wally wanted that or because they were running low on time to get it ready for the Pan Pacific in November of 51 ?