Bruce Geisler (Well known dry lakes racer)ended up with the truck and painted it pink. It ended up with a blown SBC in it under his ownership. He sold it around 2011/2012 and it is under restoration
It's here in NJ in the shore area. That picture from Kustomrama was taken at the Wayne's Auto Body Toys for Tots run, historically the first weekend of December, and the unofficial end of the cruise season in NJ. It still looks awesome and appears to be in good hands with the current owner.
It's now owned By Jim Bobowski. He and his dad are the owners of the Eddie Dye Roadster. Jim was sending Rik Hoving pictures of the restoration progress (taking it back to the original version) but there have been no updates since 2018. Rik has a couple of articles on his site with the pictures he was sent. https://www.customcarchronicle.com/...om-shop/gil-ayala-51-gmc-restoration-started/ https://www.customcarchronicle.com/cc-builders/ayala-custom-shop/ayala-49-gmc-restoration-part-2/ And the colour pictures.
I spent a lot of time in that old truck and have driven it hundreds of miles myself. My racing partner the late Bruce Geisler and I had a lot of great adventures in that old pickup, we even used it as a tow rig one year going to Bonneville. He bought it from the Ayala's in 57 and according to Bruce it was pretty used up. He had it redone and let his Mother pick the color, it is a 57 Lincoln color. He was not happy with her choice but kept his word. He traded it off to a Chevrolet dealer in the midwest for a new 58 Chev with a 348 4 speed. Apparently they used it for a shop truck for a while but that is where the story gets a bit cloudy as the next time it turned up was in a New Mexico wrecking yard where it sat for many years "not for sale". Bruce was finally able to befriend someone close to the yard owner and get the truck back in the 80's.
It's interesting that it's a longbed (3/4-ton or 1-ton?). I like the Chevy truck grille much better, but yeah, the branded grille was a bit much.
I'm not a fan of pink by any stretch of the imagination, but I actually like that version better. Probably has something to do with ogling over this picture for years.
Yup, Cole Foster and Bruce Geislers trucks are inspiration to me. Loved the Ayala truck for at least 40 years. Looking for a pic of Greg Fleury's from the 80s as well. All good chops.. FOUND IT
We recently worked with Jon Schuchart/Schuchart Customs here in York, PA, on installing a quick change in a customer's Model A. Jon restored the Fairman (Summers) '36 Ford coupe for Jim Bobowski and he's in the process of restoring the Ayala truck. I took a bunch of photos of the QC install, but this is the only one that shows the truck in the background. It's my understanding it's going back to the first version. Jon does really nice work!
Yes, the truck is at Schuchart Customs. Unfortunately, the project got back burnered a few years ago when we did the Jimmy Summers fadeaway coupe. Plans are to get back on it shortly. It is a half ton long bed and is actually a 1949. It often gets mistaken for a ‘51 since it has vent windows. The Ayala’s updated the original 1949 doors by adding the vent windows when they originally customized it. Hope this info helps. Jim
Bruce was driven to do B-Vill and leave a mark of his own as he did. B-Vill was not all there was to Bruce. He was a full-Blown gear head to the bone. His collection of Cars was quite vast for one guy and I can't think of much he owned that didn't have a Blower on it. His sense of humor was comparable to none. He lived and breathed from the Far-Side. We called him Fuzzy and his shoes will never be filled again.