Rare Combination: 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302
There is some significant amount of work ahead of you if you decide to take on this 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 project, but it is claimed to be a 1 of 33 built with Calypso Coral White interior and 1 of 183 DSO cars. It comes with the Marti report back up those claims and to prove that it’s a real Boss 302. There is a VIN listed and the title is said to be clear. At the time of writing, no bids have been made, but the starting bid is $15,000 with no reserve. You can take a look at it here on eBay.
From the photos, you can see that the engine is not complete. The seller does not think that the 302 engine is original to the car, but it at least comes with one, and it might start, but they are not sure. They do believe the four-speed manual transmission is original to the car. Either way, the seller suggests that both will need to be gone through and rebuilt before trying to get them to work.
While the listing is keen on mentioning that the interior is incredibly rare, a Calypso Coral White, the only photographic evidence of it is the rear bottom seat. From there, the seller says that you will need to completely restore the floors, carpets, seat covers, door panels, and headliner. There is a lot of rust on this car, with many holes in the floors and patch panes in the lower quarters.
The seller remains incredibly optimistic about how much work needs to be done. While that is a good mentality to have, encouragement doesn’t get the work done. It is going to take hard work and lots of funding to put this Boss back on the road. Do you think this is a rare enough car, in a condition worthy enough, at a price reasonable enough of being restored? Hopefully, there is someone out there for this car.
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Comments
Wow. I was looking for a trailer hitch to explain the rust, as in maybe it was used for launching boats in salt water… Can’t say I’ve ever seen a true western/southwestern car with this much rust, but then as a newbie to this forum I haven’t seen all that some of our BF readers have with regards to this issue…!
Why on earth would you photograph a car like that with shadow lines on it? I thought at first that someone had gotten silly with the spray paint. I mean, the rest of the photos show for sure that its no beauty, but even so.
I often see a note on a car with a Marti Report “1 of x.” One has to be careful to read the report itself, to see how the statistics have been calculated and presented. For this car, if I am reading it right, the 33 Calypso Coral/ Knitted Vinyl White combination is for all 1970 Sportsroofs. So isolating to just Boss 302’s, there would be fewer than 33, the exact number of which is not known via the presented data.
I do suspect this combination is quite rare, and would be an eye-catcher. But this car is going to take a ton of work to get it back to that level.
Kevin can do amazing things with his database, but if you want certain data on a certain car researched a certain way, it becomes a ‘custom’ request. At one time he did these, not sure today if he does.
If you ever get the chance to hear him explain how he got the data from Ford, it is a fascinating story. What a benefit he provides for all of the Ford fans.
The interior looks like it might respond well to a thorough cleaning…
Going further, the entire car looks like it would respond well to a $60,000 investment!
Looks like someone took the original instrument cluster out too. It is suposed to have a tach according to the Marti report.
There is a tach, it is mounted to the steering column. IIRC that is factory.
Not for ’69 & ’70. Factory tach would be in the dash cluster, and since it was optional, it appears on the Marti Report in the options list.
Guess the primer was used up to where it wouldn’t cover the rot. No pics of underbelly. NON orig. mill. rare interior that aint there. You would need a complete boss 302 with all the hard to get goodies like the dist, exh manifolds etc. Who knows how the underside is, or the cowl plenum. Could have taken a swim. Looker over good, then price one that’s done. Money pit and still wont be correct to the purist. Good luck,
Cheers
GPC
While the stats for the DSO (183 from DSO 89) are basically useless, the DSO itself is very interesting! DSO 89 – Transportation Services, with an order type of Company Lease Plan, and “dealership” being Ford Motor Company in Dearborn.
So basically a Ford employee ordered the car as a Lease, which explains the high number of options (lease discounts the cost of options). I believe since it has DSO 89 it would have been a Dearborn employee (or at least in that area). Other Company Lease Plan Marti Reports that I’ve seen typically show DSO 84 for cars delivered outside of Dearborn.
Makes me wonder if the person who ordered the car might have walked the assembly line with it. Makes for a good story anyhow ;-)
Being a well-optioned car with a rare color combination, and possibly an interesting history, I’d say it’s worth restoring…but the start bid is at least triple what it should be.
I checked the Boss 302 Registry in an (unsuccessful) attempt to see how many Boss 302s with this color combination are known to them. Instead, I found their Rogues’ Gallery. http://www.boss302.com/rogues.htm The featured car is not listed therein, but being a collection of cautionary tales, it is a good read for anyone interested in purchasing a Boss 302.
All that said, if I still lived in Fresno, I’d take the 1.5-hour drive to Ceres and give the car a once-over.
Not much to wonder about this rust bucket. The Michigan winters were harsh on this car. First place to look is the torque boxes, which they failed to show. They are probably toast. This thing as been hammered by the tin worm. The though of watching this shell running through media blasting send chills down the spine. There are no signs of the original interior. Looks like someone found a donor Mach1 black interior. The Block is not a service block which is a good sign. Very early 70’s typically did have the C8 blocks. But this car is certainly on the edge when most likely it should have a D0 block. Consider this, you can find a fine running driver grade Boss 302 for less than $50K, what would be the purpose of embarking on this adventure. Paint $7-12K, Body work ?? $5-10K, Engine rebuild $5-8K, Interior $2K, misc. missing B302 parts. $7-10K. current bid on car $15K = $57 K. The numbers do not add up.
“Do you think this is a rare enough car, in a condition worthy enough, at a price reasonable enough of being restored?”
For an average person, no. You’ll spend 75k+ on this by the time you’re done, not 57k LOL!. Kudos to Rjonec for putting some serious thought into actual cost here but he forgets the entire suspension and unibody, brake system, steering system, electrical system, tires, rims, transmission, clutch, rear axle, and fuel system.
And $2k to do a complete the interior is a low estimate when we factor in weather stripping, dash pads, seats, gauges, trim panels, carpet, etc. considering this car has nothing original to it inside.
And a project of this magnitude will take a few years. By the time it’s done, the market for this may be contracting and you won’t get your money back out of it.
To add to this, restored cars are great when you use the right parts but there are literally tens of thousands of restored ’69-70 Mustangs out there in the world – Mach 1s, Boss 302s, Boss 429s, etc. Personally, if I was going to spring big bucks to own a Boss 302, I’d buy one as close to original as possible, even if (or actually especially if) it had a little patina.
As thick as the filler is on the quarters above the wheel lips on both sides, it almost appears that someone might have made some flares at one time to cover the wider tires…
Was probably a great looking car many moons ago, and I’m sure someone or some people will attempt to bring it back from this mess of a car, but it will be an upside down big money attempt and it will never bring the dollars an original numbers matching Boss 302 is capable of. When these rare rides get this expensive in such a clapped out state, it’s all about money…either how much profit or how much of a loss. The “fun factor” no longer applies in the driver’s seat. Boo….
Probably be a loss but I like it. Take four or five years to restore and enjoy it for the next 20. Fun factor priceless
Pass! I’ll just keep my 1969 Mach 1 and be happy. May not be worth as much as a fully restored Boss 302 since there are tons of Mach 1s running around but at least I have AC, PS, PDB, M code, and a factory shaker.
“The seller does not think that the 302 engine is original to the car, but it at least comes with one, and it might start, but they are not sure.” Without an intake manifold or carb, that would be one neat trick!
Superdessucke: Marti’s report shows equipped with the shaker hood scoop, so for the air cleaner, shaker, and hood, add another $3,000?
Unless you have a huge stash of parts, this project will make you hemorrhage $$$
How it was ordered and how it is now are a far cry different!! I can’t see a car with the rare interior and all the available options that this car had being worth the high reserve that’s probably on the car!! The price should be cheaper just because it’s going to take lots of time and lots of money to get it back to stock!! I’m sure a good portion of the parts aren’t reproduced!! A rare optioned car means there not an everyday item like the rest that were built!!!