When Gean Villenuve was 12 years old, his brother gave him a simple task: finish the valve job he had started on his '44 Ford.


At the time, Villeneuve knew as much about cars as most 12 year olds know. Luckily for him, and his brother, he ran into one of his dad's friends who happened to be a mechanic.

His dad's friend gave him step-by-step instructions on how to get started completing the project and told Villeneuve to come see him when he was ready for more instructions.

Villeneuve made two 14-mile trips on horse back for the complete set of instructions.

When he was done, everything worked like it should and just like that, Villeneuve found his life-long passion.

"When that car started, I just knew I was a mechanic," Villeneuve said. "I was hooked and have been hooked ever since."

Today, Villeneuve collection of cars includes a 1947 Ford Coup, a 1962.5 Galaxy Fastback, a 1986 Ford Mustang, a 1994 Thunderbird, two 1939 Buick Coups, a 2005 Ford Mustang, three trucks and a 66 Shelby Mustang Cobra.


Villeneuve restored each car, expect for the new Mustang and one of the 1939 Buicks, which other than a paint job nearly twenty years ago, is still in original condition.

Of the bunch, he calls the Cobra his most personal car.

"I put every screw, every bolt on that car personally," he said.

Villeneuve has a lot of time nowadays to work on his cars. Villeneuve said he hasn't worked since retiring from Northwest Pipeline in 1996, and then quickly corrected himself saying he hadn't punched a clock since then. He spends his time on his cars, "here and there," and visiting with friends over coffee.

Villeneuve started working for Northwest Pipeline after retiring from the Air Force in 1978 as a master sergeant and 24 years of service. He worked in telecommunications, and eventually met his wife, Dorothy, of 43 years through the job. At the time, she worked communications for FAA. When there was a problem at her job site, Villeneuve called to offer assistance and Dorothy was on the other end of his call. The two met shortly thereafter and as Villeneuve says, the rest is history.

Villeneuve said he always worked as a mechanic part time while in the Air Force, including the three years he spent in Germany.

In Germany, he bought and sold 37 cars and never drove one of them. Most of them he got for free but the most he ever paid for one was $6.

Villeneuve favorite part of working on cars is seeing the results of his labor.

"Not for someone else, but for yourself," he said.

He's rebuilt at least 100 stock engines for others and built 20-25 race engines but it's his collection of cars he's rebuilt for himself that means the most to him. Most of his cars come from a different era, a fact that isn't a coincidence.

"The older you get, the older you like stuff," he said.

He said the saddest change between the cars in his garages and today's cars is today's cars are cookie cutter cars.

"When you see a Buick, a Ford or a Chevy, you have to go look at the name plate to see what it is," Villeneuve said. "Back in the day, you couldn't mistake cars. A Ford looked like a Ford, a Chevy looked like a Chevy and a Buick looked like a Buick."

Villeneuve also said today's cars are more complicated and despite working on cars most of his life, he knows he'll have to take his Mustang into Ford when it's time for a repair so it can be hooked up to a computer to determine what is wrong with it.