ONE SWEET RIDE

Beeghly’s ’64 revs into auto history

By ASHLEY LUTHERN

aluthern@vindy.com

poland

A simple paint job on local businessman Bruce R. Beeghly’s 1964 Ford Mustang turned into a quest for a piece of history.

“Bruce gave us a phone call because he wanted the car painted,” said Nate Miller, owner of Buckeye Automotive Restoration in Berlin Center. “When we went and looked at it, I told him that it was more than what we thought it was.”

The unique hand built parts tipped Miller off that this car was something special. He was right: Beeghly’s Mustang has the distinction of being one of the earliest pre-production Mustang known to exist.

A pre-production car means that the vehicle was built before the assembly line was operational. The Mustang was dated March 5 and production at the Dearborn, Mich., Ford Assembly Plant began March 9. About 150 Mustangs were built in Allen Park, Mich., before the assembly line started, and only a handful are known to exist today.

“We learned more and more about (the Mustang) and began comparing it to the other handful of pre-production cars that exist, this pattern began to emerge, so it was like a detective novel,” said Beeghly, who purchased the car three years ago. “It appeared to be a very early car, even earlier than the VIN would suggest.”

The Mustang’s vehicle identification number (VIN) was 140; The Mustang with the VIN 1 is at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.

“These cars were already built when they were stamped, so the (VIN) numbers were all arbitrary,” Miller said.

Miller, with the help of his father John Miller, Tony Begley of ClassicMuscleCars.com and some of the Buckeye Automotive Restoration employees, spent about 700 hours researching the claim, including making a trip to the Henry Ford Museum, and documenting proof to support it.

“(This Mustang) is probably the most interesting car we’ve ever restored and the most historically significant, too” said Miller, who worked on the car from July of 2008 until the project’s completion in June of 2009.

Recently, the Mustang also won out over 10 other cars to take home “Best of Class” in the Pony Car Class of the Eighth Annual Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance and Motoring Festival in South Carolina. Only 150 cars are chosen to be in the Festival.

Beeghly said he plans to continue entering the Mustang in car shows, but doesn’t see a joyride in its future.

“It’s totally operational,” he said. “But it’s only been driven in and out of the show grounds, a few hundred years at the time.”