Painted a brilliant irridescent green.

Featured in October 1952 Hop Up magazine

Gil and Al chopped the top 6 inch front and 7,5 inch at the back. '50 Studebaker front bumper, '49 C ...more

addy rear bumper and rear fenders molded in. Front fenders where fade awayed. Front lowered 5 inch and back 6,5. '49 Caddy Sombrero hubcaps and Black paint.

According the old magazines: 1941 Ford with '42 Front sheet metal, and '48 Ford front fenders, frenched headlights. Chavez build the top. Paint is Purple.

'41 Ford convertible with a modified '42 Ford grille in a custom made grille opening. '48 Ford gravel shield molded to body. And 48 Ford bumpers used. Painted Devil-Red Metallic.

'42 Ford coupe with front chopped 4inch and rear 4.5inch. '51 Cadillac rear fenders molded to the body. Front fenders where reshaped to fade away style. Reshaped '51 Cadillac grille

Gil Ayala chopped the top on this coupe 5-1/2 inch, the windshield was leaned back and a chopped one ...more

piece Olsmobile winshield replaced the two piece original unit. The rear of the top was angled
foreward and the complete top was sectioned to give it all new much better proportions. All door and trunk corners where rounded. With the top chopped the car went to Barris.

For more photos of this great Chevy go to the Barris folder here:

http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_car_photos/beautiful_custom_cars/barris-1/dan_landon_49_chevy/

This first gold green edition of the Bettancourt Mercury is seldom seen in magazines. Three photo’s ...more

of it appeared in the ’52 Restyle your Car, the April ‘53 Issue of Popular Mechanics and it was featured on the cover and inside of the ’52 Motorama catalog.
Becuase it was never in the magazines a lot it appears not many people know to much about this version of the car. The credit in the "'52 Restyle your car" was given to Gil Ayala. (Gil Ayala built this fine example of a Simple-Conservative custom Merc).

The ayala brothers performed all of the customizing on the first edition of the Bettancourt Mercury. The ayala’s where together with Sam Barris and Jerry Quesnel the first to chop a 49 Mercury. Ayala chopped the top and created a very smooth flowing roofline and just as Sam did on his personal ’49 Mercury Ayala also created full fade away fenders. Not sure if these two builders had contact with each other or had seen each others work, or that is was just a case of two genious craftsman with the same idear at the same time.

A second grille shell was turned upside down and molded in the front gravel pan to create an extremely smooth and rounded opening in which a ’51 Kaiser floating grille bar was mounted. The hood corners where rounded with a large radious on the front which flows perfectly with the frenshed headlight and at the back of the hood the ends where cut of with a large radius and the remaining piece was molded to the cowl and front fender. The flowing line gently sweeps into the chopped windshield frame. The trunk corners where rounded in a similar fashion.
What is really exceptional on this version of the car is that it has nearly no chrome accents on the outside. No side trim and even the side window trim was removed. Only a few accents chrome accents where added, the grille bar and a set of 112 appleton spots. The bumpers where stock 49 Mercury items. Most likely the interior could not be redone in time for a show and remained all stock. The body was painted a “Scintillating green gold” and the gauges clusters on the dash where chrome plated.

The second version of this car done by Barris can be seen here:
http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_car_photos/beautiful_custom_cars/barris-1/betancourt_49_mercu/

Oldsmobile 98 taillights, frenched headlights. Chrome plated gravel shields front and rear.

This 1950 Mercury was purchased new by Wally Welsh and taken to the Ayala Brothers, Gil and Al, for ...more

customizing. The top was chopped, head and taillights frenched, frame c-ed, door handles removed and solenoids installed. All emblems were removed and DeSoto grille teeth installed in the frenched shell. The Merc was finished in Metallic Lime Green. As one of the first chopped Mercs, the car was considered one of the top ten radical customs of the 50's. It was featured in several magazines and was awarded the Best Custom title at the 1951 Pan Pacific Autorama. In late 1951, Wally took the car to Barris Kustoms where two teeth were added to the grille and it was refinished in deep-deep purple. It was then named Purple Rage.
In 1953, Purple Rage was sold. Its second owner enjoyed it for two years, then Uncle Sam called. The car was placed in storage where it remained for thirty years. In 1985, it was found and purchased by its former owner Joe Eddy who began a 3 year restoration. The car was stripped to bare metal and the body massaged where necessary. The running gear was rebuilt and updated with a Chevy 400 engine. Turbo-hydro transmission, 9 inch Ford rearend and power steering. All chrome was replaced and, in 1987, Purple Rage was reborn, glistening in a lustrous new coating of Candy Grape.
In 2004 the Mercury was sold again and will now be restored in its former Lime green/gold Ayala version.

Click here to see the Barris Version:
http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_car_photos/beautiful_custom_cars/barris-1/wally_welch_49_merc/

Manny Custom features appear on this 1953 Chevy Convertible built by Gil Ayala's Custom Shop in LA w ...more

hich have collected from custom trends over the past few years. Peaked hood, frenched grille opening with Barris tube bars, frenched 1954 Chevy light rings and filled bumper tell the story of this frontal appearance. At the side, lowered and flared wheel wells tie in with simple side molding to break up the flat panel section. Protruding taillights are 1954 Packard. Top is cut 3.5 inches. Red and white upholstery and tarps set off Matador red paintwork. Hot Chevy six mill was built up by Ansesn's Automotive. R&C May 1960.

The wild pinstriping on Gil's 1955 T-Bird was doen by Walt Leeman who later used to pisntripe out of ...more

the House of Chrome which was located on the corner of the lot where the Ayala Brothers where at. The car was striped at a holliwood car show. Walt was striping the car just when Von Dutch was brought over by Earl Bruce and the two where introduced. It must have been a touch job striping while the pinstripe master Von Dutch is wtching you over your shoulder.

Belly tanker painted by Gil Ayala in white with purple flames.

Gil’s Auto Body Works
AN 15742
4074 E. Olympic Blvd. LA