Throughout the years so many valuable “dream” cars have been restored to tip top shape, and always command a high value. Today, there aren’t many unrestored dream cars, but boy when you see one, it really draws your attention. This 1970 Boss 429 is a southern based car, having spent a great deal of time in storage. Completely original and untouched, this Boss has to be one of few remaining in this condition. With 70 bids and counting, bidding has reached $145,600. Find it here on ebay out of Palmetto, Florida.
Nicely shoe-horned into the bay of this Mustang, the 429 cubic V8 is quite clean. Although this car is original, there are areas where paint has chipped and very slight surface rust has formed. Despite its lack of perfection, it is refreshing to see the condition of this beauty. One issue that is semi common with long term parked collector cars is that the car is currently stuck in gear. Whenever it was last driven the car was parked in gear, and often the clutch will “stick” causing this issue. Sometimes you can get lucky by gently “shocking” the clutch, and other times, you just plain have to drop the transmission. So in this scenario, this Boss is not a runner. Although the seller assures us that the car operates perfectly.
Moving to the interior, the first thing I always look for is a manual transmission shift lever. Beyond the perfectly placed shift lever is an excellent condition interior that looks to have never been used. The driver side bucket is superb with no wear, or break down of the seat foam. The same can be said about the rest of the seats. The dash board shows like an NOS unit having no cracks, and a beautiful shine. Even the door jambs on this Mustang are clean enough to eat off of. This is certainly a clean and well maintained specimen for sure.
After 47 years the paint shows very well, but there are some condition issues to point out. There appears to be some very faint surface rust on the front center section of the hood. Although the seller mentions some visible rust, he gives no real details on the subject. The rest of the body looks clean and straight, with no other visible rust present. Very close to perfect, these minor flaws only seem to enrich this cars originality as proof of the history it has lived. A stunning big block survivor, is this Boss 429 the survivor of your dreams?
Am I dreaming?
I don’t know how people can turn down a nice AMX for $130,000 cheaper, and how people can pay SO MUCH for a car like this. I agree that ALL Mustangs look nice, but I’m cheap and I’d much rather have an AMX, Marlin, Javelin, or Hornet SC/RC. Maybe I’m more of an AMC guy too.
I’ve heard of the Hornet SC360, found a red one in a junkyard once, but what’s a Hornet RC?
I agree Simon. There must be an awful lot of people with a disposable income to throw that money around, and they often have more than one of these in their garage. You can buy an airplane for that too.
I live 10 minutes away from Palmetto…you KNOW I’m going to look at this dream car…..
145k? This place sho gone crazy ! Shameful. At that price no one will ever enjoy this car again.
A beauty and great find. This is a highly sought after car and it is reflected in the bidding. Just wonder why they wouldn’t take the time to fix the tranny issue and makes you wonder if something else is wrong. I guess if you can afford this car it doesn’t much matter.
$150,300 now
Just dreaming about this car. It will likely end up in a private collection somewhere never to be driven. My dream would be to put the pedal to the metal, let the engine come to life and unleash its fury on the back tires smoking them down the highway. To me that’s what these cars are about.
Rod, if this super rare and super original muscle-mobile really is worth $150K, then that is trailer queen fodder in my book. If I were to live out a “pedal to the metal” fantasy, I would do it with something that is much less rare, much less original, much newer, and a hell of a lot cheaper, unless I was Bill Gates (which I ain’t).
Stuck in 1st ? – would you fix it before trying to get house money? F?$& me
Wow. Grabber Blue is my favorite color on Mustangs. Original, low mileage, big block. Hard to imagine one of these exists. I’m guessing it is going to cost a lot more than what is bid to get this one. Wow.
I’m sure I could break that clutch loose using nothing more than the engine.
I’m with ya.
3 black walls and one White letter could at least have 4 matching tires for that price.🐎
These were not known to be super quick cars even with 391 gears. I would guess that’s why Ford chose not to put a loud strip package on them. They were (very) high speed cruisers. A high-rpm NASCAR tune from the factory. All this is just fine by me btw.
The trans is basically a toploader. You would figure the cost to address the clutch/trans issue now would be so minor compared to what this will sell for. Why wouldn’t the owner want to maximize the sell price?
At $150K+ I can’t believe he used the old ‘was running perfect when parked’.
The seller could have at least fixed the stuck tranny. Not disputing the claim of low mileage survivor but he could have put the car on ramps then put a spot light under it to take pictures of the undercarriage, with that low of mileage the paint dabs on driveshaft / rearend / shocks should all be present. A white Boss 429 was at a car show last summer here outside of KC and the owner drove it there and what a sound that car made. The grabber blue was not my favorite color but this is a beauty but it would take most of my retirement savings to pay for it.
Might as well buy the car, cause you aren’t going to have much of a retirement!
Kidding! Just thinking about the financial ads that tell me I will need a $1,000,000 to have a nice retirement.
Your right I guess but those financial reports mostly look towards upper middleclass on up where as I’m pretty laid back and happy with what I have and traveling to local car shows and will be debt free when my wife and I are both retired and on a side note we are both in really good health at 64 & 61. But I get your point.
If anyone is more knowledgeable than me about these please inform: to me it’s clear the owner writes toward this car having original paint – why does it have blue overspray on the frame rails and in several trunk areas?
What you are seeing is factory overspray on the underside and frame rails.
Also notice that the pinch weld under the rocker is painted black. That is also factory and is seldom recreated when a car is repainted.
If you could get a good look underneath you would see some black overspray from the pinch weld blackout on top of the blue overspray. All of which is on top of a “slop gray” batch paint used to coat the underside and conveniently dispose of paint waste.
The trunk has had carpet added at some point (not factory!) and appears to have been painted black. The blue paint you see in the trunk and inside of the quarters – that is factory.
Looking closer…
It does look like there was some paint work done though – at least on the front fenders.
There is a bit of pinch weld black on the bottom of the driver’s side front fender. I thought the fenders were added after the pinch weld blackout – but I could be wrong. That pinch weld black also looks pretty darn shiney for 45+ years old. I wonder if someone did a little touch up?
Looking in the engine bay, it looks like some blue overspray on a few of the driver’s side fender bolts and the top of the inner apron.
Also appears that some “engine bay black” has been applied on the tops of both inner aprons.
This is what I thought too, Mike. But I also don’t know how Kar Kraft delivered their cars. If they did it like Shelby there should be no undercoating so with original paint there should be no overspray OVER any undercoating. To me this feels like at least rocker panel repaint. I’ve done several Shelby’s and this would be a no-no for “originality”. Yes, I’m a stickler but this car is going to get serious money so it is warranted and the buyer should know what he gets.
Maurice, that isn’t undercoating, it is a spray-on sound deadener material that was applied at the factory. A lot of variations in how and when it was applied to each area of the car, but Boss 429’s were not typical either.
Check these reference pics on the Concours Mustang forum, and note what Perkins Restoration has to say regarding the B9’s. Great info on that site.
http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=11896.0
http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=7910.0
http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=1907.0
R. Rollins got $125k for the one he found, with all the dirt still on it.
Stuck in gear? Engine stuck and trans in gear .. . It is beyond belief that the car is “stuck in gear” yet “operates perfectly.” I’ll pass.
Holy moly…this is a freaking unicorn!
Worth? Well…worth is what someone is willing to pay for what might be a 1 of a kind in this condition.
Wow, a highly desirable spec car, so I’m not really at all surprised by the price. I don’t love the color either, but you can’t see that holding this one back.
I believe in the free market – so a car is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. But like many others commenting here, it does seem slightly sad that this car will now disappear into the heated, air-conditioned garage of a collector and quite likely never be driven again (other than off and on the trailer to go to shows )
I also agree about that stuck transmission question. you’d think that either a) it is just a frozen clutch plate or something else just “sticking” – in which case a few hours of patient work would probably free it up…. or b) there is something else more seriously wrong. My cynical side says, “b” and the seller knows that, because if it were “a” surely they would have taken the time to fix it and enhance the value of their sale? maybe, maybe not. ( a bit like the classic CL “should run great, runs just needs a fuel pump” ho ho )
It may be “slightly sad” if the car is never driven again (except on and off the trailer and to shows), But it would be horribly sad if it were driven and wrecked. Say what you will about “trailer queens” versus “drivers”. But a driver exposes itself to the usual vagaries of cars, unlike trailer queens.
They didn’t call this the “Boss” for nothing. I’m pretty sure this was the baddest Mustang ever made. I had a friend with a ’68 Shelby KR500, 428, quite similar, and I swear, when he shifted from 1st to 2nd the front wheels came off the ground ( or the shocks topped out) It was too much, as I heard this car was, as well. Way too heavy in front, but if you wanted to impress someone with raw Ford power, in one of the most popular cars made, this was it. This is one of those cars, regardless of condition, you can ask whatever you want, it’s that special. Clutch disc probably stuck to the flywheel.
$155K and climbing with 3 days left — how high will it go?
$155,100 on the 80th bid. Did they all have those spacesaver spares? I have one from a Camaro, didn’t realize Ford did them, but not even with a black wheel?
If I were selling this car, with the underlying quality and condition that appears to exist–would not list it until it was in absolute showroom cosmetic and mechanical condition, then demand a sales price to match that condition. The buyer would get a professionally-detailed, tires-matching, perfectly running and SHIFTING pristine car that’s even full of gas, and capable of being driven home. To advertise this car before the warts are fixed appears to be seller laziness to me. –just sayin’–
I never understood the thinking behind cramming the NASCAR motor into a Mustang to homologate it. Why not the Torinos? That’s what they were running on the tracks at the time.
Anyone have any insight about this issue?
It’s because it’s named after the famous Mustang designer Larry Shinoda, “the BOSS” . The Cougars with the Boss motors are named Eliminators.
IMHO I would say because of the Mustang / Camaro / Challenger / Cuda / Firebird / Javelin wars of the time period which Torinos were not considered part of since they were not a pony car.
They did put it in the Torino, which is known as the King Cobra. Only a handful were made before the program got axed.
The yellow one is here:
https://www.mecum.com/lots/FL0116-229792/1970-ford-torino-king-cobra/
NEVER JUST SAY 429, IT’S “BOSS 429” always.
What’s so funny or phony is they put this semi hemi’s in a Mustang – so they could put them into NASCAR in the Torino’s to run the Mopar hemi’s down….still think that was a joke…and still had a hard time in Pro Stock.
Nice car though……..
Never offered with even a C6 auto, engineers thought way to much torque. This was a very mis-understood car, Ford never really hyped-up/pushed it like the competition did there’s. Many sat on the lot for months. It was a 2K$ premium over the rest and then u were in 427/435hp more balanced Vette territory. I think this was around a 58/42 balance. Notice the stock oil cooler in one of the first pics? It was a de-tuned NASCAR engine & interesting it had a smaller Holley carb on it than a BOSS302 735cfm vs 850cfm???
I’m guessing the smaller carb is use partly because the massive port volume meant the intake velocity was so slow at normal road rpm more fuel would just fall out of suspension. There are Boss heads available today for the 460 block (Jon Kaase I think). The word is the heads flow so good displacement needs to be 500+ to take advantage of them.
Paint on door doesn’t look right to me…..
Not surprised that it was parked in gear. They have to be in reverse for the key to be removed from the ignition
Have to lift the engine to pull the plugs.
This is why these are usually low mileage cars. Hard to rack up the miles when you put ’em on 1/4 mile at a time! haha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6f4T9dYrPQ
I love the noise that a Colombo v12 makes…but there is nothing – NOTHING – that beats the sound of an American V8.
This must be one of the greatest auctions ever. With a starting price of 97 cents and selling for $210,000.00. But they did get the frozen tranny loose. 114 bids. Wow!