(bright uptempo music) - [Announcer] Here's a little something about San Diego with Ken Kramer.

(classical orchestral music) - [Ken] Ah, the pastoral English countryside, driving as we are on the left of the road of course.

Now, I want you to picture this same scene in England, only, it's like sometime in the 1950s.

It was said that if you had a happy frame of mind and the weather was reasonably kind, England was a beautiful place to go driving.

Just one thing to remember.

- Get a good car.

That's the secret of it.

(dramatic uptempo music) - [Ken] There you are, a good motor car and basic.

Oh, you had your Austins, Land Rovers and Jaguars, but the Morris Minor was the popular choice.

A little fuddy-duddy maybe, but charmingly simple and really all the vehicle a sensible person needed.

- In England, the Morris Minor was the main transportation way back in the late '50s, '60s.

- [Ken] Now, bear with me here 'cause I know England is a long way from San Diego and so does Dennis Tolley.

- Switches, mirrors.

- [Ken] Because 60 years ago, he made the trip and showed up here with a growing family and a ton of mechanical knowledge about the Morris Minor and a lot of other British cars from so far away.

- And one place was looking for a good mechanic.

So I went there on Monday morning and after a slight conference with 'em, they said, "When can you start?"

- [Ken] Soon enough, he owned something that could never be on such prime real estate today.

His own repair shop was right at 7th and G. But in the simpler days of the 1960s, a big part of San Diego's downtown was car dealerships and garages.

- Yeah, there was at least six or eight repair places like mine, right in the downtown area.

- [Ken] Eventually moved the shop to Lemon Grove, more than 40 years there where he became a bit of a local celebrity because he drove a little Morris Minor truck.

You see it there?

Top speed, maybe 30 miles an hour.

(Dennis laughs) - That's great.

- [Ken] Okay, fast forward to when we caught up with him.

Doesn't have the shop anymore, but do you know what he's hung onto?

Parts, car parts.

- [Dennis] Morris Minor parts.

All these are pistons for the engines.

- [Ken] And now going on 92 years old, he is sometimes the only source for them.

- People call me and, "Do you have this part?

Do you have that part?"

Because they're no longer available in some cases.

- [Ken] Not much need for some of them, been years and years, but he's got them just in case.

- Like, this part here is the front gear outta the gear transmission.

And you can't get one of these, you know?

- [Ken] Points, condensers, ignition parts, service manuals.

- I have cylinder heads, I have cylinder blocks, and I have cam shafts and crank shafts, and all those parts.

If somebody needs them, I've got them.

- [Ken] Yes, and when he has a moment, that is a transmission he's rebuilding on his workbench.

But there's something else about Dennis Tolley.

You see, this man, born during the reign of George the V, who majored in the Morris Minor and has his MD in the MG, still does... (engine starting) (engine revving) make house calls.

(engine revving) (upbeat music) In his 10th decade, he was still going out on home visits in the same little British truck from his San Diego repair shop days.

(engine revving) (upbeat music continues) Well, with a new faster freeway engine.

(engine revving) (upbeat music continues) In its simplicity, his Morris Minor pickup is trustworthy, well-founded and reliable as an old friend who makes house calls.

Those parts back in Dennis's garage, who knows if one or two might come in handy today?

The patient you see is a little MG belonging to Jim McAdoo.

- I'll hold it while you catch it.

- That truck is well known.

My neighbor, they all like coming over here watching what Dennis is doing, what miracle he performs next.

- This hose was a little loose the last time we checked it and we want to tighten it up.

- And I have friends that are car people and they're legendary with Dennis because they call him all the time for advice.

- It's looking real good.

It's nice and tight.

It's not leaking in any way.

Not leaking in any way.

So we're back to normal now.

(engine starting) (engine rattling) - [Ken] And so it goes.

In his 90s, Dennis Tolley, from a simpler time, I guess, when you didn't have to be a computer savvy diagnostician.

know if you knew what you were doing with just a few tools, you could fix a car.

(engine rattling) - He's a treasure.

- That's looking good.

- [Ken] But it's that know what you're doing thing.

Who will take his place?

Where is the Dennis Tolley to work on an MG or a Morris Minor, say, 20 years from now?

- I've no idea.

I don't know.

- [Ken] When he's gone, that's it.

He's very likely the last of a kind.

And what about that?

This story, his reputation for sure, will outlive him.

What would be his epitaph?

Like everything else, he keeps it simple.

- Well, here lieth an old mechanic.

(laughs) Long gone.

(light music) - [Ken] Dennis Tolley, who spent most of a lifetime keeping those little British cars running, and not a minor point, made a lot of friends around and about San Diego.

(light music) (engine revving) (bright uptempo music) (light upbeat music) Do you recognize this road?

Probably, you do.

It heads north from Pine Valley.

Sunrise Highway it's called.

Takes you up to Mount Laguna.

And to Mount Laguna, We will return.

But first, let's away to the UK, okay?

(lively upbeat music) Oh, and way back in time.

For here in Wales, it is said that sometime before the 1870s, there lived a family and that family had a last name that was a little unusual.

Hogg is what it was.

And so there was a man who had that name.

They called him Mr.

Hogg.

And he didn't like it, didn't like the name, so much so that he went to the judge and said, "I wanna change it."

And the judge was very sympathetic.

He said, "Okay, what do you wanna change it to?"

And he said, "I don't know, anything."

And the judge said, "Really, anything?

Very well, Thing it is."

(lively upbeat music) Well, so you look it up and there's the story.

Historian and author Lou Stein wrote about it.

It says, two brothers, descendants of Mr.

Thing, came to San Diego and were cattle ranchers.

There was a back country general store from the 1880s.

Stood for a long time.

The Thing Brothers Store, it was called.

All to say, the next time you're driving up the Sunrise Highway, twisting and turning your way up here, you might give a thought to Mr.

Hogg who didn't have a quick answer on the spot, but it was okay.

(engine revving) Oh, and by the way, just as you're approaching Mount Laguna, you might have seen off to your right, a sign for Thing Valley Road where the Thing Brothers homesteaded all those years ago.

A curious but proud name, it turns out, in the history written about San Diego.

(lively upbeat music continues)