'70 Boss 302 in white, that was bought out of California. The car had sat around for some 20 years before we found it, in a significant state of disrepair. We were able to get hold of it and sat on the project for a few years ourselves, while we found some of the rare parts missing for it and have finally kicked off the restoration. It's a neat car, in respect to its options, as it is white, 3.50:1 traction lok 31 spline 9", 4 speed wide ratio, console, front & rear spoilers, rear window louvers, standard black trim fitted a tach, shaker, along with hub caps and trim rings. The car seems to have spent most, if not all its life, within 20 miles of where it was sold new in northern California and as such, has no rust. The original floors are near perfect. It has however, had a tough life and needs a quarter panel on the left side, two door skins, tail lamp panel and general panel work, but all these cars have a story to tell and oh how I wish they could talk...!
It would seem that this car had been the victim of a whack in the right hand door at some stage (which had been replaced prior to us purchasing the car) and the damage was also sustained into the right side B pillar and rear quarter skin, slightly. You can see from the first picture immediately above, where the damage finished at the cut we've made. It had made an absolute mess of the first 150mm of the quarter skin and the subsequent attempts to repair it had made matters worse, but the rest of the quarter is very nice, so I managed to find a beautiful original 70 B pillar section from a fastback in a USA wrecking yard which had already had it's roof cut off (unfortunately, took the top of the pillar) and it was perfect to repair this. Inside the pillar where the striker attaches was horrible and had seen some shonkey repairs, so this pillar piece was the only way to fly, with regard to repairing all this damage. We even managed to keep the original spot welds where it attaches to the sill, so it will not be detectable that it's had this repair. As you can see from the stage pictures, the repair section fitted in beautifully and has come up a treat. It's great fun bringing these old cars back to life and returning them to 'as new' condition.
We're starting to get this Boss 302 back into shape, with new door skins on both sides. It has the most beautiful door frames, but had been subjected to ordinary panel work at some stage. It now has laser straight doors!
Here above, we've removed the ugly (and we mean UGLY!) rear 1/4 panel on the left side and sent it off to Asia to be melted down and turned into one of those new 'tin can' vehicles! Did we mention that you need a healthy sense of humor to deal with Bosskraft? Seriously though, it was pretty sad the way it had been attached to the Boss, so it was removed and we have a nice new full size 1/4 ready for it. The trunk floor was replaced at some point, probably due to the light tap that the car had received and was held to the rear rail by two welds out of about 20 attempts, so we opted to replace that too, while having such awesome access to the area. The rear cross member was a little sloppy looking, so that was also replaced. Fits like a glove now and looks fantastic. In case you're wondering, we do plan to remove the screws holding everything in place now, as we feel that spot welds and welds are much stronger and original looking! The entire rear end will be trial fitted up, before any welds are performed, ensuring all panels fit the way they should. Once media blasted, primed and shot with the factory style seam sealer that we use, then painted, you'll never know that these items were replaced. We even spot weld the panels on like the factory did, making them extremely authentic looking.
Below, are some images showing some of the bare metal stages and initial epoxy primer stages of the Boss in restoration, followed by paint detailing of the undercarriage.
The beaut old white '70 Boss, finally coated in it's original color of 'Wimbledon White' and looking very shiny!
Time to prep and tape up for the blackout stages, which were all done last on the assembly line. The quarter extensions were fitted to the car, just as on the assembly line, for a truly authentic appearance when done.
Rather than use the single stage product that's been around for years and that is not solvent resistant, we devised our own method with generating a correct texture, using today's technology and we're very happy with the results. We were particular to generate the same over-spray edges and effects, as on the assembly line, along with the same finishes.
We were approached by someone who wanted the Boss and despite our reluctance to sell it, we sold it to him. The new owner of the Boss intends to do as much of the work as he can, but lives interstate, so we've put the heavy bits together for him, to ease transport and he can go to town playing with the rest of it, when it arrives. Despite his extremely tight budget, we've done far more than we'd otherwise be able to do at that price and to a much higher standard than such a budget could buy elsewhere.
This is the stage of completion that the owner wanted the Boss to be in, when leaving for his garage, so that he could continue on the restoration path himself. We wish him luck and enjoyment in the process!