A fellow I know sold a very few pieces of broken scrap blue and white enamelized porcelein from an old gas station to a roving collector for a good bit of money, maybe as much as a one or two hundred dollars. I'm not familiar with metal only gas stations, so they could be much less expensive. I suspect that you are not going to find any bargains in SoCal. Consider cities/towns in Texas, etc. 100+ miles away from any metropolises, where the turn-over of buildings is much slower, focusing on cities/towns with <100,000 population, maybe, and perhaps you'll find more than a few empty old 50s era gas stations...but even in these smaller cities/towns, I doubt anyone will be selling a weather-tight building on the cheap as such an old gas station can at least be used for storage. Also keep in mind that moving/altering a load bearing wall of any commercial building might call for a somewhat expensive asbestos survey. I'm not a professional builder or a building mover, so take my concerns as fairly speculative. Check out my website which along with the old gas station I am still attempting to develop:
www.geocities.com/amwj2001
