GTO-to guy could use your help

On this day of hearts and flowers comes a love story with gold paint and horsepower.

It’s the story of Ted Fennen and his 1967 Pontiac GTO.

Today marks the 45th anniversary of the Valentine’s Day when Fennen heard his name announced over Spokane’s KJRB-AM radiowaves.

The 20-year-old was the lucky winner out of untold thousands who had entered a downtown car dealership’s drawing for a sparkling new muscle car.

But that’s just where this love story begins.

Last summer, I wrote about Fennen’s quest to have his prized car brought back to its original luster.

Mission accomplished – and then some.

I sat shotgun last Friday as Fennen drove his GTO to a North Side gas station for a fill-up.

What a blast, a perfect antidote to a drizzly gray February day.

And a maiden voyage, as well.

Fennen told me it was his first time behind the wheel since his pal, Terry Randall, finished a ground-up restoration that began in October 2009.

Getting reacquainted with the car’s manual steering and brakes took a bit of adjustment, Fennen confessed. Ditto the 3-speed floor shifter.

“It’s like the day I drove it off the showroom floor,” Fennen recalled.

What a beauty. The GTO’s Signet gold paint is rich enough to carry King Tut’s mummy.

Randall set the bar at perfection and made sure every detail measured up. Even the Pontiac’s original green-and-white Washington license plate looks as fresh as the day some prison inmate stamped it.

The engine? I’m no mechanic. But the throaty growl from the 400-cubic- inch mill suggests that the manufacturer’s claimed 335 horsepower may be underestimated.

Randall did himself proud.

But here’s where our tale of macho machinery takes a bittersweet turn.

Last month, Randall and I exchanged phone calls and emails in an attempt to work out a day when weather and schedules aligned for a GTO ride.

Then Randall stopped returning my calls.

I learned from his son, Kerry, that his father had suffered a sudden and serious brain aneurysm in late January.

Surgery was performed to relieve pressure. Randall, I am glad to report, is on the mend.

But you could restore a lot of cars with the retired Kaiser worker’s rising medical bills.

To help defray some of the costs, family and friends have started a Terry Randall Fund. Donations can be made at any area Numerica Credit Union.

The longtime mechanic is a terrific guy. The GTO project, he told me last summer, was a stress reliever while he was taking care of Danna, his wife of 40 years, who was suffering from cancer and other health issues.

Randall said he would often work on the car at night, after Danna went to sleep. She died in 2010.

Randall is the best friend a guy could have, said Fennen.

“I met Terry when we both worked at Kaiser, but I really got to know him over the last two years,” he wrote in a recent email to me. “He is always available to help his friends and family in any way he can.

“I don’t know how many times he has helped someone when they have a problem with their car and most of the time he won’t take any money for doing it.

“Just listening to the way his children talk about him, I know what a great dad he has been to them. I know this has been both financially and emotionally devastating for his family.

“All they want is for him to get better and come home.”

Maybe when the days turn warmer, Fennen and Randall can climb into that gleam machine and relive that classic rock song by Ronnie and the Daytonas.

“Turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO!”