Engine Gone MIA: 1970 Boss 302
I would absolutely love to have a Boss 302 Mustang, but these Fords are incredibly sought after. This one has issues, including rust and the engine is missing, yet it’s already bid up to over $20k! That’s some serious money for a project that is going to need a ton of work and will never be numbers matching, but that’s just how desirable real Boss 302s are. It’s just too bad that the engine is missing. If you happen to have a 302 lying around or just want one of these as badly as I do, you can find it here on eBay in College Park, Maryland.
Like many of these cars, this one has an interesting story. It’s moved around quite a few times over the past couple decades. It started out in Atlanta, Georgia, then made it’s way to Michigan. At that point it was with its second owner, who repainted it and installed a Boss 351 engine in it. Why? I have no idea, but at least they put a Boss engine in it. They eventually moved from Michigan to Southern California and brought the car with. It sat outside until the current owner bought it in 2015 and it has been in Maryland ever since.
When the seller bought it, the previous owner wanted to keep the 351, so they agreed to help them remove that engine. Seeing as it wasn’t the original, that really wasn’t a huge loss. Thankfully, the original transmission and rear end were left in place. They are the components this car left the factory with, so at least if you were to take on restoring it, you only have the wonderfully difficult task of tracking down a Boss 302 engine rather the complete drivetrain.
For all of it’s problems, this actually isn’t the worst Boss 302 project I’ve ever seen. The interior looks complete and the body if fairly straight. Rust looks to be an issue, but if you are going to have to do rust repair, there aren’t too many cars easier to work on then a Mustang. The engine being MIA is a huge bummer and hurts value, but that certainly hasn’t stopped bidding. It will be interesting to see what it ends up going for!
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Comments
Over $20K! Wow… in 1976 or so my brother’s brother in law Rick bought a Boss 302 just like this – same color and everything – for $800. Some high school kid had bought it for his first car and ruined the clutch. Rick fixed the clutch, drove it a year or two and sold it for enough to put a down payment on his first house. If this is worth $20K, I can’t imagine what his would be worth today.
Over the years I’ve had numerous customers come up to me and say: “My engine is missing.” Of course I always had the smart-assed comeback: “Did you see who took it? Maybe you should call the police.” Now the customer is usually referring to a misfire but in this case the engine really is—missing. Buying a car, minus the engine is a real bummer. I recall many years ago when a friend of mine bought a ’61 Mercury with the engine missing. What happened was the original owner pulled the engine, tore it down and sent the block, heads and crankshaft to the machine shop. The shop held onto everything until the bill was paid. It wasn’t, so the machine shop sold off the components to cover the bill. It took the better part of a year but we eventually found a 352 engine out of a wrecked ’60 Fairlane, rebuilt it and stuck it in. My friend managed to recover his expenses but little else. I’ve always been a fan of Boss Mustangs, at least of this vintage. If I was to land this car, I’d keep looking for a proper engine but for the interm I wouldn’t have a problem running a bone stock 351 Cleveland. At least the engine would look the part. I can only imagine the frustration if this was a Boss 429….
I’m just shaking my head as to what they are getting for cars needing a lot of work, yet if you try to sell one already done they want it for one needing this much work.
JW – I hear ya
You’re buying the BOSS 302 VIN and dataplate.
Pick up a totaled Roush Mustang, swap the 600hp supercharged 302 & 6 speed out of it into this body, problem solved.
As Oscar Goldman would say: we can make it better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster…
I would have liked to have it with the Boss 351, that was the hottest Cleveland Ford made. Fasted production car in 1971 and that was a larger, heavier car. Nowdays you could build a 351w with the repoduction Boss heads that would be just as fast.
Believe it or not and I am not at all suggesting that this be done, but this Boss restomodded such as Tyler’s comment above hints at, would bring far more money than a nut and bolt restoration. That has been the trend of late.
Original Boss 302 blocks are not that hard to find, Ford Racing makes a new Boss 302 block as well for about $2000. The late model modular motor swap is a cool idea, but requires removal of the shock towers, which is one of the unique things about the 69-70 Boss 302 Mustang.
There is one of these rotting on the side of someone’s house in south Houston Texas right off of 288 and 610. I would see it every week and wonder what the story was.
Jump on that one Clinton! Offer it here or keep it for yourself
I think I know where you are talking about. THe aerial view shows two cars, but street view shows where they “used to” be.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/I-610,+Houston,+TX/@29.686642,-95.3769988,3a,60y,18.69h,76.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4dxp94A7CV21YH98S3yi1g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x8640bfc54481e1e9:0xbe49a2f6b086c7a6!8m2!3d29.8138929!4d-95.3711846
This car needs to stay ORIGINAL. It would be a sacrilege to put any engine other than a BOSS 302 style engine in it. If you want more power, stroke it with all the BOSS external components. I had a ’70 BOSS(can you tell), but I never knew Ford offered a hideous looking interior as this, except in a Maverick. I would have to change it.
Fix the rust, paint it, change the interior, replace engine, and drive it.
Would like to see a Marti Report on this car! The Grabber Orange paint with the Ginger blazer stripe interior has got to be a rare color combo on a Boss 302!
I wasn’t able to open the Ebay ad at work when I posted last night. It looks like the car is actually Bright Gold, not Grabber Orange.