ing new parts there for him. One guy
said, “
That Shelby of yours is pretty
fast. Ken was out there other day and
blew off a Corvette...
” “
What do you
mean he was out there with my car?
”
Then, one day my cousin called and
said, “
You probably better get back
down here. I’ve heard rumors that this
guy is going to go bankrupt and the
sheriff is probably going to lock the
place up
.” I went down there that
weekend with my cousin, who was a
cop. We went over to the guy’s place
and broke in and backed my car out
and took my boxes of parts and closed
his door and drove it back home. The
guy called up a little later and said,
“
Hey, do you have your car?
” I said,
“Yeah.” And he said, “
Well, I want to
finish it
.” I said, “
I’m not bringing it
back to you. I’m going to find some
place else. I don’t have much faith that
you’re going to get it done
.” I eventu-
ally had someone else finish the car for
me. Ken Young and I were a couple of
guys – and there weren’t too many
guys in 1972 – who had already re-
stored their cars. A lot of Shelbys you
saw back then were ragged-looking.
We’d already redone our cars; R-Model
aprons, a roll bar, dropped upper con-
trol arms, larger tires, side exhaust
and all that.
SAAC: When you started collecting
serial numbers in the early 1970s, did
you limit yourself to just ‘65 and ‘66
Shelbys?
BURGY: I also collected 289 and 427
Cobra numbers from ads.
SAAC: At that time, did you know
that anyone else was collecting num-
bers?
BURGY: No. Not when I started. One
time Howard Pardee came to Ohio to
visit me. I had gotten laid-off by Ford
and I had moved in with my girlfriend,
Diane, in Stow, Ohio. He was driving
5S357. We talked for awhile, and I had
a small, two-drawer file – about 6-
inches high and 22-inches deep – filled
with 3x5 index cards. I had the VINs
of the cars and owners’ name and ad-
dress on individual cards, and on the
back I used double-sided tape to stick
a picture of the car or clipped out the
ad from
Autoweek
or wherever it came
from. I agreed to let Howard borrow
them and cull the information from
them. Roger Hodyka was also collect-
ing information but he never told me
he was doing serial number stuff. I
don’t remember loaning him my cards,
but he put together some kind of a reg-
istry. It was about fifteen mimeo-
graphed pages with single-spaced
serial numbers of the cars and owners
he discovered.
SAAC: At that time, nobody knew all
the serial numbers, or even how many
cars had been produced.
BURGY: Hodyka had found a stash of
unstamped serial number tags some-
where at Ford, and when he went
through those he had more made. He
was selling them but was very careful.
He made you send him your old tag
before he would send you a new one.
SAAC: That was smart, at the time.
BURGY: Well, there has always been
a debate about what you do with the
tag when you get the car restored. I’ve
heard too many horror stories about
guys who lost their tag. When I had
1206 done I drilled the tag out and
kept it at home, and put it back on
when the car was finished. I did the
same thing with 285. With 285 I got
Roger to make me a new tag because
the old one was kind of messed up. I
put the new tag on the car and kept
the old one in a box of goodies. At one
of the conventions in Michigan when
we went out to Domino’s Farms, I was
approached by a guy who said, “
Hey,
I’ve got your old car, 6S285. It looks
like it has a new, reproduction tag on
it. Do you know what happened to the
old one?
” I said, “
I’ve got it. If you can
prove to me that you own the car – a
copy of your title or registration and a
pencil tracing of the Ford VIN, I’ll just
give it to you
.” After the convention he
sent that stuff to me with the fake tag
and I sent him the real one to put back
on the car.
SAAC: When did you get involved in
collecting Ford GT serial numbers?
BURGY: I think it was in 2003, after
Ford announced they would be build-
ing the cars, SAAC contacted me and
asked if I wanted to become the Ford
GT Registrar and keep track of them.
SAAC: When word spread that Ford
would be building a run of new GTs,
we thought that there should be a
place for them in SAAC. At that time
nobody knew how many would even-
tually be made, but they seemed to be
a perfect fit for SAAC. We thought we
would have no trouble getting serial
numbers and production details di-
rectly from Ford. Boy, were we ever
wrong.
BURGY: Yes, Ford was not helpful.
Jason Demchek and all the guys work-
ing at SVT didn’t do a thing for me. I
talked to a Ford PR guy named Alan
Hall at the SEMA show and I asked
him to get me the serial number of the
GTX-1 (a roadster conversion of the
Ford GT that Mark Gerish had on dis-
play there). I never heard from him. It
turned out there was a guy in Chicago
who gave me a copy of the database of
GT VIN numbers and build informa-
tion which had all of the serial num-
bers, build dates, colors and options
The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2016 59
Being called into Edsel Ford’s office didn’t
mean that Burgy was having his head
handed to him. In this photo, Mr. Ford was
thanking Burgy for displaying two of his
cars, a ‘57 T-Bird and a ‘65 Mustang Hi-Po
convertible, at a Juvenile Diabetes benefit
show at Ford WHQ. Edsel’s son, HF III,
grew up with diabetes, leading Edsel to be-
come an active supporter of the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation.