Shop space in San Diego

[--james--]

Does anybody know of a place I can rent shop space in San Diego?

My Scout needs some work that I just don't think can be done at my house in Mission Beach.

Back home (Portland, OR), the community colleges offered adult classes like welding and auto repair. I did some work on my old Camaro where I paid about $200 a semester to have a stall in a warehouse building and access to some of the larger shop tools like presses and lifts. Plus, an instructor was on hand for a few hours a week to drink coffee and jaw about whatever repairs you were up to.

There doesn't seem to be anything like this in San Diego. I have a small shop at my place (about 6'x12'), and I have a parking spot in an alley, but no garage. I don't think my neighbors are going to be cool with me taking body panels off my truck in the driveway

I guess I'm running into the difficulties of being an Oregon native transplanted to urban California. Things that might have been simple are probably going to be more complicated. I had 2 people standing around watching me change my oil because they had ever seen it done.

Best quote ever: "So ... you just lay on the ground? Isn't it dirty?"

[WarlordX]

The ground dirty??? Noo... of course not.. hahahahaha im assuming that was a female.. ? :P

[lindstromjd]

Haha... that's when you tell them it's not the GROUND that's dirty, it's the AIR right above the ground that's dirty and just being around the air gets you dirty. I bet those Cali's would have a sh*t fit then. Lol.

[78ssii]

James,
It kinda depends on how much you are willing to give out each month. As the presidend of the San Diego Chapter I have been trying to find a garage space/ lot that we could use as a club gathering and work area, but prices are just a tad high.

Now we do have a member that does have some work garage for rent. If you email me I can give you his contact info and you can talk to him and see what can be had, but it was just a little much then what the club could afford since we dont have that much money anyways.

I suggest you look on Craiglist under there commerical or rental areas and see what you can find, or post up on Craigslist and see what happens. Who knows, if you find a good place and the price is right.

[Allan E.]

When I was in the navy, the bases had the kind of shops you were talking about. Pretty cool having a place to work and all. Some of the 17-20 year old guys knew nothing about cars, but they would try, and weren't afraid to ask for information. They'd be out there learning to rebuild carbs, do shotgun tuneups, etc. I ended up doing a whole lot of work to my 56 F100 in those bays.

Depending on how long you will be working on it, you might want to look into a large self-storage locker. Might be an option if you aren't going to need to weld indoors. If you have the fuel system removed, it's just storage. If the fuel system is in there, it's "parked." The answer "No gas tank" diffuses a lot of questions.

[--james--]

Yeah, we still have the "Auto Hobby Shop" at North Island where I am stationed, but it is not nearly as extensive as these kind of facilities used to be. I haven't been over to 32nd street yet, but I am told it is the same situation. Pendleton is a bit of a drive, but I should probably check it out.

At North Island, the big drawbacks are that I can't leave my rig there overnight and they don't have any bodywork capabilities. No welding, no grinding, no painting primer etc.

Now the Wood Hobby Shop, that is still pretty good.

Thanks for the tips.

[Allan E.]

The one I used was at NTC where I went to BE/E school and IC A school. I guess I was there from Nov to April, then off to Great Lakes for C school for another 20 weeks. When I came back, I was out at Coronado. I never did find a place to work on the truck there except the parking lot. Didn't do any body work there, but we did swap out a rear end one Saturday. Nobody bothered us, although we did get some funny looks.