A Grabber blue 1970 Boss 429 Mustang rumbles off the pages of this week’s Cars-On-Line.com newsletter garnering the respect it deserves in the collector car market. A prime example of Ford’s most valuable product of all time provides the top story in the collector car market this week. They say car collectors now prefer Boss 9’s over the heavily desired Chrysler hemi cars of the same era.
According to the Marti Report, Ford built this Boss 9 at the Dearborn plant in September of 1969. It then sold new at Waldrop Ford in Liberty, Texas on May 29, 1970. Finished in its factory Grabber blue with white Corinthian vinyl hi-back bucket seats, it came with the Decor Group. Grabber blue over white was a very popular color combination back in the day. The restoration was done sometime in the 1980’s.
This beautiful Grabber blue 1970 Boss 429 Mustang boasts a numbers matching engine, close-ratio 4-speed manual transmission and a factory Drag Pack “V” code 391 Traction Lok 9-inch rear end. By 1970, the Z Code 429 engine came with a “harder” cam upping the horsepower and performance. The earlier S Code Boss 9 engines were considered “a little soft” because of the mild cams. The Z Code engines had a long duration cam with solid lifters and stiffer valve springs. Z Code engines are the ones you want. Racers noticed better ET times and astounding NASCAR performance. They beat the hemi cars in ’69.
Today’s Grabber blue Boss 9 comes from a private collection in Hartford, Connecticut. Some of the cars from the collection are now for sale. Very little of the information about this car was available. It does come with a Marti Report however. The Marti Report shows it born with power steering, power front disc brakes, oil cooler, rimblow steering wheel, console, factory tach, electric clock, AM radio and deluxe seat belts w/warning light. It has the competition suspension and Magnum 500 factory rims with Goodyear Polyglass tires.
Open the hood of this beautifully restored Boss 429 Mustang with the fully functional black matte, air-gulping hood scoop and revel in the look and sound of the engine. As the pictures will show, the restoration is reflected in the extreme detail shown on even the undercarriage. Notice the factory inspector markings reproduced in detail.
In order to get the KK Boss 429 motor certified for NASCAR competition Ford had to produce a street version of a car that used the Boss 429 big block Semi-Hemi engine. Although Ford raced this motor in the Torino Talladega in NASCAR, they believed they would sell more cars if they put the Boss 9 motor in their most popular seller, the Mustang Pony car, for homologation. NASCAR required that for any motor to be run in NASCAR competition the factory had to sell at least 500 cars with that motor in it for street use. And so the Boss 429 Mustangs were born. While Ford dominated NASCAR in 1969 with the Boss 9 motor, its greatest gift to the collector car market were the NASCAR KK Boss 429 Mustangs.
This elite group of cars were given a special NASCAR identification “KK” number when converted to Boss 9’s by Kar Kraft in Michigan. This one has KK #2100, verified by a plate appearing on the drivers side door, and the Marti Report. Kar Kraft had the job of modifying the bodies of the Mustangs to accomodate the huge Boss 9 engine. There was a rumor that Kar Kraft shoehorned the massive Boss 9 engine into the tight Mustang engine compartment. But the 429 engine was actually dropped in by Ford at the factory before the cars arrived at Kar Kraft.
Boss 9’s were only available for two years. By 1970, Ford had already made the decision to end production due to slowing sales and gas prices affecting all big block muscle cars. Total production for 1969 and 1970 combined was 1,359. (They built 859 in 1969; 500 in 1970.)
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