Mission Bay Automotive Repair, San Diego, CA (other) - Locating Tiki

T TIKIBOSKO Tiki Socialite Joined: Oct 17, 2004 Posts: 337	T TIKIBOSKO Posted posted on Tue, Sep 27, 2005 9:20 AM When I first found this place I was quite excited as I suspected that this may have once been a Tiki gas station or at least a Tiki repair shop. I had hoped to get proof of that for the (then) upcoming BOT, unfortunately all my leads slowly petered out. The mechanics I spoke with there (over 10 years ago) thought I was crazy. But after talking for a while, the head guy he said the Tiki was put up there for “luck” and it had always been a car shop. My brother happened to know a guy who knew a guy who knew the former owner. Before we were able to pursue this long avenue, Sven’s book finally went to the publisher and I put this place in the back of my head. The location of the establishment is important as this was a main road into town before freeway 5 was put in. If you look at the structure it (to me) resembles an old style filling station (with a lot of additions) of course now there are no pumps left but I still believe this was a gas station way back when. Also if you go north just a block or so you’ll hit the cool rattan/patio shop, its architecture is clearly mid-century exotic. If you look closely they both have a similar border treatment, obviously one borrowed the idea from the other, either way they were trying to capitalize on the popularity of Polynesian pop. My very best alohas, Bosko

When I first found this place I was quite excited as I suspected that this may have once been a Tiki gas station or at least a Tiki repair shop. I had hoped to get proof of that for the (then) upcoming BOT, unfortunately all my leads slowly petered out. The mechanics I spoke with there (over 10 years ago) thought I was crazy. But after talking for a while, the head guy he said the Tiki was put up there for “luck” and it had always been a car shop. My brother happened to know a guy who knew a guy who knew the former owner. Before we were able to pursue this long avenue, Sven’s book finally went to the publisher and I put this place in the back of my head. The location of the establishment is important as this was a main road into town before freeway 5 was put in. If you look at the structure it (to me) resembles an old style filling station (with a lot of additions) of course now there are no pumps left but I still believe this was a gas station way back when. Also if you go north just a block or so you’ll hit the cool rattan/patio shop, its architecture is clearly mid-century exotic. If you look closely they both have a similar border treatment, obviously one borrowed the idea from the other, either way they were trying to capitalize on the popularity of Polynesian pop.

My very best alohas,

Bosko

Post #189100 by TIKIBOSKO on Tue, Sep 27, 2005 9:20 AM