Balboa Park auto museum to honor Rancho Santa Fe couple ranchosantafereview.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ranchosantafereview.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Louie Mattar’s Cadillac, the Car That Has Everything, 1952
Louie Mattar, a San Diego garage owner with a big imagination, who turned his 1947 Cadillac into a how-to guide for four-wheeled DIYers everywhere. When he bought a brand new Cadillac four years ago, the extra equipment his dealer offered was not enough and Mattar started to add a weird assortment of things that other motorists can only dream of.
Louis Mattar with his 1947 Cadillac, San Diego, 1952.
Doing most of the work himself, he put in a shower, coiling the pipes from his 50-gallon water tanks around the exhaust manifold for the hot water. A pumping system was crammed under the hood. Next to the taillight went a drinking fountain and under the dashboard a tape recorder and a bar with spigots for whisky, water and soda. In the back seat he put a washing machine, a stove and even included a kitchen sink. All this took four years to do and cost Mattar better than $14,000.
SAN DIEGO
No longer an eyesore, the facade of the San Diego Automotive Museum in Balboa Park has been painstakingly restored following a six-year, $715,000 preservation effort that ties into a broader campaign to rehabilitate the Palisades in keeping with the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition.
On Tuesday, the Committee of 100, the all-volunteer group behind the restoration effort, is celebrating the building’s return to its roots by presenting four 8-by-18-foot murals to Mayor Todd Gloria, who will accept them on behalf of the city.
For the record:
8:54 AM, Apr. 13, 2021An earlier version of the story misstated the number of the tiles in the murals. The correct number is 576 tiles.
From run-down to restored, Balboa Park s Automotive Museum presents a truer picture of the 1935 exposition sandiegouniontribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sandiegouniontribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.