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Leroy & Judy Anderson & their ’69 GTO
When it comes to cars and ‘car guy’ stuff, I have
to consider myself pretty lucky. Twenty-five+ years ago, I was lucky
enough to fall in love with and marry a ‘car gal’. Judy and I had
grown-up in Sonoma, going to High School there although we never really
met until after graduating. We finally met in September of ’76 when I
was working as a Reserve Officer with Sonoma PD, and my partner and I
went into her family’s donut shop (insert jokes here) for coffee and
some ‘day olds’. She was working there and I finally got the nerve to
ask her out. The rest is history.
At that time, I was driving my first Pontiac, a 1975
Formula Firebird (maybe that’s what won her over??). Judy had a ’70
Cuda, which was her fourth car. She had started with a ‘little old man’
four door ’62 Nova, next was a ’68 Chevy truck, then a ’70 Camaro.
She had learned to drive in a ’65 Chevy panel with a hi-po 327 and a
stick. My vehicle roster up to that point was not as exciting, but varied
as well. I had learned to drive in my mom’s ’69 Nova, and our old
ranch truck, a ’53 International longbed with a non-sychro 4 speed
(with granny low). My dad thought that the truck would be a great vehicle
for me to drive to high school, but felt that it should be painted a
safer color. He then painted it yellow with a case of spray paint.
Needless to say it was a real babe magnet, NOT!
Luckily, I was able to talk my dad into letting me buy a ’42
Jeep for $350. It was an old ‘flat-fender’ made by Ford. It was rough
but drivable, had no top, but was better than that damn yellow truck!
When I graduated, I cleaned-out my savings account and bought a ’73
Ford Ranger XLT pick-up (this was when a Ranger was still a full-size). I
kept that truck for about a year and traded it in on the Firebird. Also
in ’76 or ’77 I picked-up a used 350 Honda, which infected me with
the motorcycle bug, eventually leading to a full-dress Harley (but that’s
a different story).
After Judy and I married in ’77, we started a cycle
of buy a vehicle, keeping it about a year and then selling it and getting
another. Some of the cars/trucks included: ’75 Chevy stepside, ’68
Corvette convertible, ’73 Corvette T-top, ’81 Corvette coupe, two
different ’55 Chevy 2 doors, various pick-up, El Caminos, and Blazers.
Before our son Jim was born, we were in the local Corvette Club, and
really enjoyed the club events and tours. In 1996, Jim was working on his
first car (a ’67 Camaro), and we began to think about getting some type
of muscle car, and to get into a club again. We went to Hot August Nights
for the first time that year, and we knew that we had to come back
with a car entered.
We decided that a ’70 Chevelle would be good, and I
started looking in the bay area. After looking at a lot of junk, the best
that I had found was a ‘granny’ car that had a bench seat and a worn
out 307, but at least it was straight, the guy ‘only’ wanted $7000! I
took one more look in the Diablo Dealer, and saw an ad for a ’69 GTO
for $4700 in Concord. I called the guy, and found out that he was the 2nd
owner, it had 74k miles, a 4 speed and ran fine. He said that he had an
offer from a 16-year-old kid, but really didn’t want his car to go to a
kid. I told him that I would be right down.
The seller worked at the Concord Pontiac dealer, and
he kept the car there. When we pulled-in and saw the GTO, Judy and Jim
said “BUY THIS CAR!”. They must have read my mind. The car looked
great, it had some minor rust and paint defects, but ran and drove great.
The seller said that he bought it 18 years earlier when he was in high
school. He admitted to treating it a little rough at first (like cutting
speaker holes in the door panels and removing the wood sport steering
wheel), but said that after a couple of years he realized what he had and
drove it less eventually storing it. We made a deal for $4500, and I
drove it home a happy CAR GUY!
That was in December ’96. I had the rust repaired
and new paint and vinyl top done during the summer of ’97. I replaced
the door panels and carpet, and had the front seats reupholstered and a
new headliner installed. We missed having the GTO for HAN that year, but
it was there for ’98 (along with my son’s ’69 Camaro RS/SS). In ’99
I pulled the engine and tranny and had them rebuilt. I put an .068 grind
cam in and had the heads ported and gasket matched to the manifolds. The
crank was balanced as well. We were registered for HAN again, and at 2 AM
on the day we were supposed to be leaving, I was on my back under the GTO
getting the shift linkage to work. The engine had been fired at that
point, but not driven. I took it for a test drive around 11 AM and the
put the hood on and drove to Reno without a problem. All in all, this
Goat has been a great car. Up until getting a county car recently, I used
the GTO as my daily driver.
Judy and I really enjoy the club. It has been great
fun, and we have made so many new friends! Like Tony said in his article,
all you ‘ghost members’ need to do yourself a favor, get that Goat
out of the garage, dust it off, and come out to an event! You will
have fun, and your car will get a chance to get some fresh air, exercise
and hob-knob with it’s brethren!
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