It's kinda like a lottery. We all daydream about being the one to uncover the next original-owner "barn find"-that evasive classic Mustang that was bought new, driven little, and for some unfathomable reason put into storage, waiting to be discovered decades later in near perfect original condition and needing nothing more than a good detailing to be good as new. Just like winning lottery tickets, such finds are as scarce as hens' teeth, yet they do still occur. But seldom is the discovery something as desirable as a Grabber Orange '70 Boss 302. One with just over 2,400 miles on the clock. Really.
Our story begins in late summer 2008 with a small, photo-less ad on craigslist, that online purveyor of everything from paper clips to personal services. The Midwest-based local ad simply read something to the effect of "low-mileage Boss Mustang for sale." The freshly listed advertisement caught the eye of one of the main characters of our story-a car guy, but not one particularly knowledgeable about Fords. Upon calling the seller and hearing the astonishingly low claimed mileage, he immediately called one of his buddies who is a hard-core and technically knowledgeable FoMoCo fanatic. They both hurried over to see the Mustang, though still not overly optimistic about what they would find. Jaded skepticism, we suppose.
You may have noticed we're not mentioning names here. This is at the request of the parties involved-and not unreasonable given the extreme rarity and value of what they found. It is also their wish to protect the privacy of the seller. We can certainly respect and understand such requests, so we'll tell this tale anonymously and without any identifiable vehicle details, such as a VIN number.
Arriving at the seller's house, the garage door was open and our anonymous twosome spied the blacked-out tail of a spoilered Boss, looking like it had sat there for ages, with boxes stacked all around it. The guys said they could tell even from a distance that it was "brand new," an impression confirmed as soon as they opened the trunk and saw the unmolested and clearly original condition. So much for their initial skepticism. Moving deeper into the garage, they noticed that the factory carburetor, distributor, and exhaust manifolds had been removed and replaced with vintage hop-ups, and that the rev-limiter was also missing. The factory exhaust pipes and mufflers, originally removed for header installation, hung on a wall. The owner said he'd done the modifications way back in 1970, yet the Boss had apparently never been driven in its modified form, and the owner was quickly able to locate each and every one of the valuable factory components, all tucked away in boxes within his garage.
Until our guys trailered it away, the Boss had not moved from its garage haven since 1970-the exact reasons remaining something of a mystery-so only the original battery was unusable.
All OEM parts, including the wonderfully intact exhaust system, are now reinstalled to their proper places.
The seller had placed his order in late May of 1970, with an exterior combo that was reasonably typical of a second-year Boss 302-rear spoiler, rear window slats, and Magnum 500 wheels but no Shaker hoodscoop-while having an interior that was unique in wearing the dressed up Décor Group and sport deck rear seat, yet no center console. There's no power steering, and his chosen drivetrain teamed the 6-code, close-ratio gearbox with a 3.91 Traction-Lok rear axle. He had also instructed the selling dealership to install the AM radio's telescopic antenna on the right rear fender instead of up front.