Wally Welch 1951 Pan Pacific winner
WALLY WELCH TAKES BEST CUSTOM WITH HIS AYALA 1950 MERCURY
The second Petersens Motorama show was held in November 1951. The show was open to the public from November 7 till the 11nd. Just like the previous year the show was held in the Architectural Icon: the Pan Pacific Auditorium.
(Original article from July-09-2013, updated June-08-2915)
Wally Welch entered his freshly finished 1950 Mercury in the second Petersen’s Motorama show. After enjoying his Ayala built 1941 Ford for several years, he brought a near new 1950 Mercury to the Ayala brothers to built a radical, yet subtile, custom for him. The car was chopped relatively mild, had its front fenders extended with frenshed headlights. Reshaped grille opening with 5 partly covered 1951 DeSoto grille teeth added. Gil Ayala painted Wally’s merc an brilliant lime green with gold powder added for extra sparkle.
The car looked stunning in this color and it sets Wally’s Mercury apart from most other customs, which were painted with dark organic paints. It might very well be possible that the judges were very impressed with Gil’s brilliant color and his bold choice of painting a large, almost brand new car, with such a “In Your Face” kind of color. In any event Wally did win the Best Custom award at the 1951 Pan Pacific Petersen’s Autorama show. It is also told that the Ayala’s were trying to debut two Mercury’s at the show, and both were painted a shade of lime gold. The Wally Welch Merc was finished in time for the show, but the other one, the 1949 Mercury the shop was creating for Louis Bettancourt, had a lot more body work going on, and could not be finished in time for the show. It must have been a stunning experience to see two of these amazing smooth Custom Cars both painted and brilliant lime gold sitting side by side. Sadly that never happened. Louis 1949 Mercury was done for the 1952 Petersen Motorama Show.
Cropped section of the photo above shows the show card that was created for the show. Sadly it is not completely showing in the photo. One of the awards is being displayed on the coffee table that was used for display and where people could pic up an Gil’s Auto Body Workshop business card.
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Wally’s daughter still has the original plaque which was part of the awards. Sorry for the poor photo which we took at the 2011 GNRS Customs Then & Now exhibit under very poor lighting conditions.
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Gil Ayala posing with the Wally Welch 1950 Mercury for the photographers at the show.
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This rather fuzzy photo is a movie still from an 1951 movie made by Petersen Publishing/Trend Publishing about the 1951 Motorama. It shows the Wally Welch Mercury at the Pan Pacific Auditorium show, surrounded by the audience.
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Another still shows that there are two people standing next to the drivers side of the car on the inside of the roped section, talking to some people in the audience, could these be perhaps Gil and Al Ayala promoting Gil’s Auto Body works.
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This still from the movie was most likely taken before or after opening hours of the show.
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The complete Promo movie can be seen here, shared from Youtube.
Above we can see the locations were the Wally Welch Mercury was shown in the Pan Pacific building (the 1950 Mercury placed on the floor plan is not to scale). The House of Chrome, the accessory shop located in the small building on Gil Ayala’s Auto Body works had a booth at the show, No. 102.
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The Pan Pacific Auditorium was a landmark structure in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California. It was located at 7600 West Beverly Boulevard, near the site of Gilmore Field, an early Los Angeles baseball venue predating the Dodger Stadium. The Auditorium stood within sight of both CBS Television City on the southeast corner of Beverly and Fairfax Avenue and the Farmers Market on the northeast corner of Third Street and Fairfax. For over 35 years it was the premiere location for indoor public events in Los Angeles. The facility was closed in 1972 and destroyed in a fire in 1989.
Designed by the Los Angeles architectural firm Wurdeman and Becket – which later designed the Music Center and the space-age “Theme Building” at Los Angeles International Airport – the Pan Pacific Auditorium opened to a fanfare of Boy Scout bugles on May 18, 1935 for a 16-day model home exhibition. Noted as one of the finest examples of Streamline Moderne architecture in the United States, the green and white facade faced west, was 228 feet (69 m) long and had four stylized towers and flagpoles meant to evoke upswept aircraft fins. The widely known and much photographed facade belied a modest rectilinear wooden structure resembling an overgrown gymnasium inside and out. The auditorium sprawled across 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) and had seating for up to 6,000.(Source Wikipedia)
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first time i notice the desoto teeth were covered !! nice car !
His is he best way the De Soto have been used. Plus it’s the first time thy were used on a mercury.
This is a great story about a great custom.I have always loved this mercury and its early history. I really think the Ayalas came out of the gate hard by bringing this car to the Pan Pacific.
We all know that Ayalas didn’t get all of the praise and coverage they deserved .Maybe that is just how we as Custom fans see it all these years later.We maybe somewhat brainwashed because we see so many books and mags about other builders.The fact is the Ayalas didnt to bad at the shows in the early 50s.Gils car won Oakland in 51 and Wallys won the Pan Pacific later that year.That to me is speaking louder then any amount of promoting the other shops did.
Always liked this one and I agree with Jeff.