Hail to the Chieftain

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This article was published 04/09/2020 (2072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Although Claude Chretien has been working on cars for a large chunk of his life, the 76-year-old only bought his first classic vehicle approximately a decade ago.

Chretien told the Sun on Aug. 28 that he was driving around CFB Shilo when a 1954 Pontiac Chieftain caught his eye and caused him to pull over.

“There’s a lot more chrome on the American Pontiac than there is on the Canadian Pontiac, and that’s basically why I bought it: because it was something different,” he said. “There weren’t many cars like it in town or around here at the time.”

Over the next five years, Chretien went about giving the Chieftain a full restoration, which involved revitalizing the frame, brakes, gears and body, although a third party handled that last step.

To Chretien, this extended process brought him back to his days as a licensed mechanic, working for companies like Woolco and Bowman Brothers in Regina, Sask.

“I was born and raised on the farm, so I was used to working with tractors where you have to shift gears,” he said. “So once I started working on different vehicles of that era I had no problem driving a standard as well as an automatic.”

Although Chretien had to change careers in approximately 1990 after developing a bad skin rash, he has always maintained a passion for fixing up old vehicles, which returned in full force once the Chieftain came into his life.

Even though the full-size car doesn’t possess a lot of horsepower, Chretien said its old-school design still manages to turn heads and attract a lot of admirers in Brandon.

In fact, a couple years ago, Chretien recalls how he even got invited to chauffeur a couple around for their anniversary, since they originally got married in a Chieftain 40 years ago.

“I took them for a ride for approximately an hour all around town and out on the highway,” he said. “So that was a good surprise for them.”

However, Chretien admits that he is currently in the process of trying to sell the Chieftain, realizing that his age is starting to eclipse his ability to keep such a demanding car in top shape.

“The aches and pains are there, so it’s a little hard for me to work on the vehicle,” he said. “It’s about time to pass it on to somebody else so they can keep it going.”

While Chretien will be sad to see the Chieftain go, he has gotten a lot out of the car over the last decade and doesn’t have any regrets.

However, the Brandon retiree warns that the best prospective buyer for the car would be someone who is already mechanically inclined, since these older vehicles require constant maintenance.

“And it’s not like these newer vehicles where you just jump it and an electronic machine will tell you exactly what’s wrong,” Chretien said. “With these cars, you have to already kind of know how the engine or transmission works.”

Pontiac only produced their Chieftain model between 1949 and 1958 before it was succeeded by the Catalina in 1959.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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