A man in an oil-decorated blue uniform...

A man in an oil-decorated blue uniform stands just outside the red and white, wood-frame building and gazes retrospectively down the street. “You know, this used to be the last stop for service and gas between Los Angeles and San Diego,” says Mark A. Sequeira, owner of the historic Tustin Garage.

Not much has changed since the business opened nearly a century ago. It still looks and feels like a garage. Fan belts and gaskets hang from the rafters. Cartons of motor oil are stacked five deep to one side, and dismembered engines, clutches and carburetors await their turn on the operating tables.

And it smells like a garage. A rich, hearty fragrance of grease and metal and sunlight and dust has seeped into every crack and pore of the landmark site. It is a scent intrinsic to the business and it instills an unquestioned trust and confidence.

One can almost hear partners William Huntley and Nicholas Gulick in the old days tell a customer whose shiny red, 1926 Model T has just rolled in sputtering, “No problem. Just needs a tuneup. That’ll be $1.75.” And the customer whose gleaming black, 1990 Cougar has lost its purr to an ill-sounding hiss is likewise reassured when Sequeira tells them, “Probably just needs a tuneup. Should be no more than $50.”

The Tustin Garage has had a steady line of cars in and out of its doors since Huntley and Gulick took over the floundering business in 1915, after a couple of false starts by less-enterprising owners. Most likely it was Gulick who handled most of the chores--Huntley was busy as a member of Tustin’s first City Council, and its second mayor.

The garage continued to prosper even after the pair sold it in 1940 to Patricia Bryce. It was sold again in 1946 to Virginia Stevens, who was responsible for removing the gas pumps that had served motorists on the El Camino Real for decades. After another shift in ownership, the business changed hands most recently in 1984, when Sequeira happened to be in the right place at the right time.

“I moved out here from Boston with my wife and daughter because I had a job all lined up in transportation,” Sequeira says. “But when I got here, it had fallen through. I just happened on this place. The owners were about ready to retire, clients had started to fall off, so I made a deal to buy this place right then and there and go into business for myself.”

With a lot of hard work, a complete automotive-repair service, reasonable prices and a good business head, Sequeira turned things around quickly and has been in the black since his first year; he now has a staff of five full-time mechanics including himself, and one full-time office manager.

“Our specialty is the bigger jobs like body work, clutches, electrical work, and engine and transmission overhauls” Sequeira says.

Although there is a 1927 journal entry preserved in the Tustin Area Museum that reads “regrind and overhaul motor and transmission . . . $25,” that service today would be around $2,500.

In the final analysis, as much as things change, they remain the same. And at the rate Sequeira is going, the Tustin Garage will still be doing a booming business long after Capt. Kirk has dropped off the Enterprise for a quick lube and force-field rotation.

Hours: 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday

Address: 560 El Camino Real, Tustin

Telephone: (714) 544-1966

Miscellaneous Information: Services foreign and domestic cars