The Dr. Sean Factor
I have been in contact with a very intelligent man for some time,
and have enjoyed my "conversations" via email, but recently was amazed at the
pictures of Dr. Sean Lougheed's cars that he sent me. It seems that Dr. Sean has an
extraordinary talent for restoring automobiles, and the full restorations of his
Chevette's depicted below attest to his ability. You may remember Dr. Sean from the Diesel
timing belt page, as his very valuable instructions can be found there concerning that
topic. I asked Dr. Sean to send me a little bit about himself, and I have added that
information below with pictures of his fabulous Chevette's !
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Hi Dr. Sean ! I will be preparing a web page soon
about your fleet. I'm interested about your automotive restoration background:
Boy, you do want a long story don't you? I will give you
the condensed version... I have been building and restoring cars since high school and was
big into it until the mid-eighties. Never went to trade school but learned from some very
good bodymen. I learned it because most bodymen don't/can't do a competitive show car, and
if they can, I couldn't afford them. In the 90's I started and concentrated more on the
business, which is body work on the big (Greyhound type) intercity busses. That sort of
took a lot of the fun out of doing restorations as it started to look a lot like work. But
even through that I restored and drove a '69 El Camino SS and a '70 454 Impala in vintage
NASCAR trim, and a pile of winter beaters mixed into those years. After Osama the jerk of
the universe did his thing last September it took the business into a nose dive. A
survivable down-turn but in so doing, he freed up enough time to take on a few projects
purely for the fun of it. I looked for and found the diesel last winter after having my
interest perked by looking through your site, and thought that as a future collector car
that would be neat. Nobody would restore a Chevette, so I decided I should be the first. I
didn't think that the beast would be such a ball to drive, or as interesting, or ...you
know the story... I got to like the damn thing an awful lot.
I'm curious about your interest in Chevette's, and why you have put such a
large amount of work in such a car.
You say that very nicely, what everyone else says is, "Why would you put
so much work into a crappy little car like that?" To tell the truth, it comes down to
a couple of things. 1) I like them, they are actually fun to drive and fix (but I like
Mopeds too). If they still built an '86 2dr I would buy one today, especially the diesel.
2) A third generation Chevette is not a "crappy little car". You need to own a
Festiva or a Firefly to really qualify for that. I
like them so much I would rather rebuild than switch.
Why.....?
They are the best deal around for a car. By that I don't just mean they are
cheap, they are that too, but they are the best car per dollar, period. That took a bit of
math to see, but with maintenance they have very long service lives and not only are
repairs cheap when they happen, they don't happen like other cars. (Anecdote:
In-laws just spent $2600.00 on rebuilding the trans in their '96 Grand Prix, I didn't have
the heart to point out that the Cameo has cost me about $1500 to date and that includes
the parts car and the purchase in the first place. I think the extra $1100 would fix it up
with the V6....) Sure, some people would say that I put all the labour into the cars and
that saves money, yes, and that is my way of not having a $450.00 a month car payment, let
alone that $2600.00 surprise. They are rear wheel drive and therefore really good driving
cars on crappy snowy/icy roads, something we get a lot of here. I really dislike the front
wheel drive cars that got shoved down our throats by GM, etc, and we see people get killed
every winter because of it. Just because it is cheaper to build for GM does not make it a
better product...... Remember that Pinto thing..... Yes so ......and they are not prone to
rust, at least not as bad as most.
I realize that I save that money, and re-invest it into the Chevettes, and the
way it seems to be working out is that the 'Vettes are getting better and better and....it
is still really cheap.
Do you maintain other kinds of cars as well ?
I have but only one. I still have my '68 GTO convertible. It was my first show
car and to tell the truth it needs a re-do in the near future. I saved her from the
wreckers in '76, I was 15 & it was my first car, at this rate she will still be around
after I am gone.
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Dr. Sean has created what he calls a Chevette Cameo. This car has an original factory
sunroof !
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This is a shot of "Kenny", Dr. Sean's 1985 Diesel Chevette. He has painted the
car in Driftwood metallic ( base clear ), and this is one beautiful car. |
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This is what "Kenny" used to look like, and to the right >> |
 I am sending along 3 pics of the
diesel vet (Kenny). These are only a before and 2 in progress pics. The first one does not
show alot of the rusting coming through the paint, but it is there. The other 2 are
as he was totally stripped to the steel, I replaced the front fender, bumper, grill,
valance, and all 4 bumper end caps with HQ used bits. The finished photos are not done yet
but all the body work and paint is. It looks fantastic. I worked out what it would have
cost a customer.... over 3 grand. We did spend alot of time working out little dings and
waves and the rocker on the drivers side rear took a bit to rebuild, as did the rear
fender arches. The problem is that if I do a paint job for my self, it has to be perfect,
as it drives me bonkers to walk up to my car and have my trained bodymans eye pick up
some flaw. If you ever wanted to see a classy paint job on a vette stay tuned, I will
send pics, maybe one bigger file for resolution. |
Late additions !
I recently got some more photo's and information from Dr. Sean, and he has sent me a
pic of a Pontiac Acadian ( Diesel ) steering wheel that I have never seen before. It's
certainly an improvement over the standard Chevette steering wheel (that I can't stand. I
always replace them).
Pontiac Acadian Diesel with fancy steering wheel Otherwise known as
"Spock".
The good Dr. does get around..........
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