20 MUSTANGMONTHLY.COM
About 25 years after
being mesmerized by
the clean looks of the
SportsRoof Boss ’9 and
its giant semi–hemi-head
429ci V-8 engine, Baer
began filling his garage with
only the best survivors.
They “gotta be numbers
matching,” he says. He’s
up to 10 Boss 429s—five
’69s and five ’70s—with no
preference for one over the
other. “I know the general
public likes the ’69s better,
but they are both my
favorite, either year.”
THE MISSING LINK{BOSS 429}
The Boss 429 was
built beginning in 1969
by Kar Kraft of Dearborn,
Michigan, so Ford could
homologate its hemi-
head 429 in NASCAR
racing. NASCAR required
500 cars to be built, but
approximately 1,350
Mustangs were built into
Bosses by Kar Kraft for
Ford. The cost to the buyer
was $4,919.76 per Boss
429—almost $150 more
than the base price of a
Corvette—and no options
were available. The onlychoice was color.
Although Baer has
no preference between
Boss 429 model years, he
clearly has colors he loves,
and he speaks fondly of
his Calypso Coral and his
Raven Black Boss 429s.
He also has colors he likes
less, and until the Billups
family of Mustang gurus
at Billups Classic Cars
and Billups Auto Body
in Colcord, Oklahoma,
finished restoring his latest
Boss 429, Black Jade was on
Baer’s “hate” list of colors.But if you’re going to collect
the rainbow of Boss ’9s,
Baer knows you must have
a Black Jade example.
Had Billups not found the
perfect Black Jade Boss ’9
to restore (and so close
to his shop), Baer might
still be missing this last
of the five standard Boss
429 colors—Raven Black,
Royal Maroon, White,
Candyapple Red, and
Black Jade.
After seeing the
finished car restored to
perfection by the Billups