WAYNESFIELD — Chuck and Sharon Truesdale, of Waynesfield and formerly of Cincinnati, were looking for a red Mustang convertible when they found this one.
“We had a friend in Reno, Nevada, that we were visiting in the early ‘90s. Reno holds a big car show called Hot August Nights that lasts for an entire week. There are over 5,000 antique cars at this show. We came home with car fever,” Truesdale said.
The Truesdales have owned this 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang convertible since 1995 or 1996.
“When the guy took the cover off and there was this gorgeous blue car, my wife looked at me and said, ‘Everybody has a red car.’ We bought it,” Truesdale said.
The couple calls their car “Blue Velvet.” The color is Caspian Blue.
The Truesdale’s car has all matching numbers. After they purchased this beauty, they started researching and found that their car was near the very beginning of the production run.
“The first Mustang came off the line on March 9, 1964, and this one came off on April 3, 1964,” Truesdale said.
Car enthusiasts argue whether there is a 1964 1/2 model year, as Ford merely started its production run earlier than usual. Differentiating the year 1964 1/2 means that the car was at the start of the production run — semantics, really.
There is a key difference in Truesdale’s Mustang making it truly one of the first ones off the assembly line: Truesdale’s car has a generator, not an alternator.
“Blue Velvet” contains a V-8, 260 CID engine and is an automatic with power steering.
Truesdale said the car attracts admirers when going down the road or parked at a roadside rest.
“We were returning home to Cincinnati from a car show in Cairo once,” Truesdale said. “The car doesn’t have cruise control, and my foot got tired so we stopped at a rest area. Before we could get out of the car, there was a whole bunch of people around us. Just before we got to the rest area, we passed a bus. The people on the bus saw our car, and they followed us to the rest area. We had a car show right there! We were there for two hours.”
Not surprisingly, the Truesdales have too many trophies to count from their “Blue Velvet” car. That’s not such a bad deal changing one’s mind from a red car to a blue car.
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