The Hulk
A 1970 Boss 302 was a “gotta have it” car for me in high school, particularly in Calypso Coral. I looked at a few and even test drove them, but that idea got quickly vetoed by my dad – that was back in the late 70’s. Fast forward to 2015, flush with funds after taking early retirement at age 52, single and just starting out on my “muscle car madness” adventure. I had seen a ‘69 Z/28 at a consignment lot in Ft Worth, TX that I wanted to check out, so I flew down, rented a car, checked out the Camaro and then went on a “21 consignment lots in 11 days” tour that took me all the way to the Great Lakes, down to the Southeast of the US and back to Texas.
While on that tour I ran across quite a few ‘70 Bosses, but one in particular caught my eye – a funny green one that I figured had been repainted an oddball color some time in its life, but it turned out to be a rarely seen factory color – Grabber Green. After some negotiating, I struck a deal for this car and “The Hulk” was mine.
Now, mind you, I knew absolutely nothing about these cars other than the obvious – they were Mustangs, and Bosses, and had a 302 engine – and it had that nifty, shiny green paint job!
Once it arrived to Washington I took it to a Cars and Coffee night and was invited to join the Sun Country Mustang Club. I was also told by a Mustang owner that my Boss was a clone, that the fifth digit in the VIN was supposed to be a G. Turns out it was, and it’s a real Boss, but I realized just how little I knew about these cars as I didn’t even know how it was supposed to be coded!
That year I took it to its first “Ponies in the Sun” and took home the 1st Place trophy – but I started noticing that my car was a bit different than others when checking out the engine bays. The next year it took a number of trophies, including 1st Place at the big Pacific Northwest Mustang Club show where it was up against 7 other 69/70 Bosses, some of which were MCA Concours Gold cars owned by MCA judges. I was shocked by the win (beginner’s luck!) but also talked to some of the knowledgeable owners about the differences between my car and theirs – turns out that during restoration there were many things incorrect under the hood (when compared to factory-correct/concours cars), in the trunk, in the interior – pretty much everywhere. I had started down the rabbit hole of “making it right”, but the final straw came at a different show when another owner started pointing out all the incorrect details on my car. Me being me, what was going to be an engine bay detail turned into stripping everything but the headliner out of the car, rebuilding the engine and transmission, detailing the underbody paint to factory spec, all the chalk and sticker and paint marks, etc. To my surprise, The Hulk took home an MCA Concours Gold in the “Driven” class on its first judged event. Of course no car is perfect, so my next stop was NPD in Ocala, Florida (we happened to be in Orlando shortly after that judged show) to get the parts required to address most of the shortcomings.
As this was the first time I’d torn a car completely apart and put it back together, there were some huge learning points and a very steep learning curve:
- There’s a really great group of Boss owners, and they’re tight – folks I’d never even met from all over the country pitched in with advice, parts and a ton of information and knowledge. I’ve even managed to meet a few and we continue to stay in touch.
- Jack at Dead Nuts On was a ton of help and a great source for concours-correct replacement parts.
- Rick at NPD was also very helpful and even gave me a tour of his collection in Ocala.
- If it doesn’t look kinda crappy in some places, it’s not right – overspray everywhere (but only here, not there), gotta have orange peel in the paint or you get dinged on concours judging, gaps and alignment just weren’t that great from the factory, etc.
Hulk has taken on a bit of a different life now, though, as cars were meant to be driven – it’s running radials now and riding on Koni adjustable gas shocks (of course painted black and marked to look like originals) – the change in handling is enormous!
