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Sleeping BOSS 351 back on the road.Finding a 1971 BOSS 351 - out of 1806 being built - is a rare opportunity and very seldom these years and finding one in Europe gets even more difficult, although is not impossible. Kevin Marti (www.martiauto.com) revisited his database and found out that around 150 BOSS 351 were in fact exported, quite a big share of the 1806 built in 1971. My swiss colleague Iso added that he knows of about 7 alone in Switzerland these days, almost all are fully loaded with options. Later on we found out from another owner of a swiss Boss 351, that Ford Suisse decided to import them themselves without another dealer in between. Actually the saying is that 13 were imported by Ford Suisse. But back to the Rare Find, that we present here. Eric Lifalandry contacted me in 2002 and reported of a BOSS 351 that he had just brought over with his trailer from Switzerland after a nice deal he made while searching for some parts for his 69 Mustang GT. The final result was that this abandoned 71 BOSS 351 turned up under a huge pile of carton boxes and other stuff in the garage of the seller. It took Eric 6 months to get a full picture of the car, as the owner refused initially to get his garage in order for seeing the car. Patience is the first rule for such a deal. NNow Eric is the proud owner of this white BOSS 351 with an Export DSO of 90. The CA indicates a black interior and is correct for a BOSS 351 as well. As is the V for the 3.91:1 rear axle and the R in the VIN for the 351/4V BOSS engine. The valve covers have been removed by the P.O. about 20 years ago, but after initial starting over the mechanical valvetrain and other engine internals seems to be still working, as Eric said. There is yet a lot of things to do to get the BOSS 351 back in a nice status, but Eric has little time working on his other cars. So he wanted to part with the project car again, if the price was right. Some time later the car was sold to Finnland (see update below) During a business trip and having 2 hours left at the airport I had the chance to see the BOSS 351 by myself and take some more pictures. As you can see there are still some things to do, but the base showed up to be o.k.. The Ram Air system seems to be complete as far as I could check out in the darkness of the subfloor garage, the interior smells of course like 20 year old neglected interiors like to do, but the condition is still quite good. The Hurst shifter is still there. The underside looked very good, although the car has winter tires on. The front inner fender wall must be repaired on the upper edges, the right fender is a replacement. Some waves in the paint on the right rear roofline are either from a repaint job or maybe the typical reconditioning of some body cracks. Eric left the car in "as found status" to ensure that buyers get the right impression and don't suspect any coverage of evil things. Still any buyer would need to check this car out by himself, as no warranty is taken by myself. As it appeared the BOSS 351 well deserved being saved and seemed to be a solid base for a restoration, if the engine is no major problem. Eric intended to make sure the engine is running and considered some general body and touch-up work, after the buyer saw the car in its original condition. Still 20 years of garage life left their traces on this car.  Update: Heikki Knutunen from Finland later sent me pictures of the car during his ownership. It was well taken care off inside and outside and appeared at several shows. At some time Heikki wanted to part with it, but not many sellers had the money, so more than once he decided to keep it. Below are pics from 2020. What a difference! Congratulations. I guess I should have bought it back then and kept it for myself. Yet I did not have time nor money left over for another car.  |
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