While most high school seniors are still exploring their post-graduation options, Tyrone senior Adrianah “Anah” Beschler is already building a career working on iconic American muscle cars.

For the past eight months, she has been working at Legendary GT/Fieldstone Continuation Cars in Roaring Spring, where she has worked on several high-profile projects, including a $750,000 Dragonsnake Cobra continuation car and a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 owned by none other than current Shelby American President Gary Patterson.

A Tyrone Area School District student since third grade, Beschler said she definitely did not imagine herself working in an auto shop when she was younger, but she has always liked working with her hands and is drawn to art, two interests that auto restoration combines.

Beschler got her start in the auto collision and restoration field at the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center (GACTC), where she is developing skills in automotive welding, bodywork, painting, and refinishing.

She began exploring career and technical education opportunities after a tour of the GACTC during her freshman year.

The GACTC offers twenty-five programs to students throughout Blair County, including culinary arts, health fields, graphic design, HVAC, car repair, auto collision/restoration, and many other trades and vocations.

“I knew I wanted to go to GACTC for something, but didn’t have an idea of what. I toured other machinery classes without knowing collision was a class, and ended up applying for that class without even touring it,” Beschler said.

Beschler began attending the GACTC in her sophomore year, where she learned welding and rust repair in her first year. In her junior year, she focused on perfecting her skills in auto priming and painting, which emphasized her interest in art.

Her instructor at GACTC, Brandon Hoover, began his career as a collision specialist after high school but has been at GACTC for nine years, the last six as the lead collision and repair instructor.

Hoover is impressed by Beschler’s work ethic and desire to improve her skills since she first arrived at the GACTC as a sophomore.

“Anah has improved her attention to detail,” Hoover said. “She was fairly hands-on from day one, but watching her perfect herself in the trade was really neat.”

By her senior year, Beschler landed a part-time job at a specialty shop handling nationally recognized Shelby projects.

Beschler learned about the job opportunity from her great-uncle, Ross Saltsgiver, at the family Thanksgiving dinner table in 2024.

Saltsgiver had just retired from Smith Transport and started working at Legendary GT/Fieldstone, which is owned by Barry Smith, founder of Smith Transport in Roaring Spring. Smith is a longtime Shelby collector and knew Carroll Shelby, the automotive legend best known for the Cobra and high-performance Shelby Mustangs.

Legendary GT/Fieldstone Continuation Cars is a specialty shop well known in the muscle car collector community for its Shelby projects and high-end restoration work. It works closely with Shelby American, an independent company with ties to Ford, on special projects for serious car collectors.

Beschler’s responsibilities at Legendary GT/Fieldstone include metalwork, fiberglass, bodywork, paint, and finishing.

“[Restoration work] is different from normal collision work in that you tear the car right down to the frame. Normal collision work is a quick job to fix the car, but not to make it last. With restorations, everything you do has to be spot-on for it to look like new, or better than new,” Beschler said.

That environment has given Beschler exposure to specialized restoration and fabrication projects early in her career.

In her short time there, she has already had the opportunity to work on two very special projects.

The first was to prime and paint one of the company’s special Dragonsnake Cobra builds.

The Dragonsnake Beschler worked on is a modern continuation car version of the legendary Shelby Cobra drag-racer from the 1960s. A continuation car is any vehicle no longer in production that the original manufacturer begins producing again, either by themselves or through a collaboration with a specialty shop.

An original 1965 Dragonsnake sold at auction in 2022 for $1.375 million. This continuation version sells for $750,000 before options, and each one takes about a year to build.

Only five Shelby-authorized Dragonsnake continuation car models will be made, all assembled by Legendary GT/Fieldstone, making Beschler’s work on the project an unusually high-level responsibility for a high school student.

“The pink [Dragonsnake] was actually the first car I worked on there. It was already in primer, and I had to sand it like a million times, in so many grits of sandpaper,” Beschler said. “This was a really fun car to do because it has a clearcoat finish with fine glitter in it. You have to put 15 coats of paint on the car, and between every few coats, we had to sand it down again and again. It took from July to September just to do the paint.”

The other project she is working on now is special not only because it’s a classic American muscle car, but because of who it belongs to.

Beschler is on the team doing a full teardown and restoration of the 1969 Mustang Mach 1 owned by current Shelby American President Gary Patterson.

Patterson discussed the car Beschler is working on in a YouTube video posted in 2021 (the video is embedded at the bottom of this story).

In the video, Patterson said that the car is one of his “prized possessions, because this ‘69 Mach 1 I actually bought in high school with money I made mowing lawns, so it’s been very special to me for many, many, many years.”

He took the car drag racing as a teen and has owned it for over 35 years. Beschler said it still had his high school parking pass sticker in the window when it arrived at the shop.

Patterson recently decided it was time to complete a full restoration of his prized Mustang and entrusted Legendary GT/Fieldstone with the work.

“His car came in at the beginning of winter, and our mechanics stripped it down to the frame,” Beschler said. “Then they brought it to my mentor, Tyson, and me, and we are doing all the metal work. We put it on a rotisserie and started by removing the torque boxes and frame rails, which had some damage, and began welding in new ones, making sure all the metal is perfectly straight and clean.”

The fact that the shop has entrusted Beschler with a classic car for such a high-profile client demonstrates the level of skill and professionalism she already has.

According to Beschler, she and her mentor will do all the metalwork, bodywork, and painting on the car, basically everything except the engine and mechanical work.

Beschler has worked at Fieldstone for eight months now, and her experience there has been extremely positive.

“It has been very pleasant, all of my coworkers have been really nice, and I have learned a lot,” Beschler said.

Despite being the only teenager and the only woman working at the shop, she said that the people she works with have been welcoming and helpful.

“I like it. It’s been totally eye-opening to me. The guys are super welcoming, some of them have daughters, so they know how to interact with me,” Beschler said.

Her boss, Rob Fichtner, is very proud of her progress so far.

“Anah shows up to work on time with a smile. She isn’t afraid to do any job given to her,” Fichtner said. “Her work ethic is very impressive for a young lady wanting to work in the automotive restoration field.”

Her coworkers and classmates describe her as a young woman with a great work ethic who is not afraid to learn new things and always remains positive.

After graduation, Beschler said she would love to work at Fieldstone full-time and expand her skills.

“I see myself doing cars that go to big shows like SEMA. It would be awesome to see one of the cars I put so much work into go to a big show and be viewed by people who enjoy art,” Beschler said.

The SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show is a major event held annually in Las Vegas where auto builders and manufacturers showcase high-end custom, performance, and restoration vehicles.

Beschler said her experience at GACTC has given her a new perspective on her career options, showing her that not every successful career path requires college, but they all require determination.

Her GACTC teacher, Mr. Hoover, agrees that there are plenty of career opportunities in the trades, but students have to work hard and be willing to learn.

“Get involved. Trades are becoming very high-priority occupations where people can earn very good livings,” Hoover said. “Come in, learn how to work with your hands in any trades program, and it’ll make you a better person all around for life.”

Just like Anah Beschler.