22 MUSTANGMONTHLY.COM
they have 20,000 to 30,000
miles and then that’s about
the time they broke down
and they got parked.”
The surprises didn’t
end with the relatively high
mileage. Billups said the car
was extremely complete
and extremely solid when
it rolled into his shop in
December 2015. “This one
had 60,000 and it still had
its original smog equipment
on it, and that’s unreal. It’s
just not normal at all. It
still had the original rear
shocks on it, the original
space-saver spare, one of
the original battery vents
in the back,” he says. “It
had the original air cleaner,
carburetor, heat shield—it
might not sound like a big
deal, but in the Boss ’9
world, these are $30,000
worth of parts, and they’re
usually all gone.”
From what he pieced
together on its history, the
Boss ’9 spent its life in dry
areas, making it the most
rust-free Boss that’s ever
entered his orbit. Billups
first saw the car when it was
parked in the back corner of
an acquaintance’s shop, and
at the time he didn’t give it
much thought. He said the
acquaintance had bought it
in the late 1990s but never
drove it.
Then, one day while
he was quail hunting
with Boss 429 guru Ed
Meyer in Kansas, Billups’
phone rang. It was the
acquaintance asking if
Billups was interested
in buying the Black Jade
Boss ’9. Billups and Meyer
put down their shotguns
and headed to Shawnee
to examine the car. After
the pair gave the Boss ’9 athorough inspection and
took some notes, Billups
suggested his friend and
customer Mike Smith buy
the car. Smith also thought
he should have it, and
Billups made a second trip
to Shawnee to buy the car
for Smith.
While the Black Jade
Boss 429 was sitting in
Billups’ queue for a future
restoration, circumstances
changed, and Smith
reluctantly sold the car for
personal reasons. That’s
when Billups offered the
car to Baer, who needed
a Black Jade to fill out his
Boss ’9 color wheel. Once
the Black Jade Boss ’9 was
under the lights at Billups
Classic Cars, Jason and
his brother Scott started
searching for the few parts
the car would need for a
world-class restoration.
The list of parts was
short. Boss front shocks,
another battery vent
for the Boss-only rear-
mounted battery, and
period-correct tires were
tops on the list. While the
dry climate in which the
Boss ’9 was driven was
kind to its sheetmetal, the
heat damaged parts of the
interior. Luckily, the parts
that Kar Kraft modified
in order to stuff the 429
between the repositioned
shock towers of a standardfour-speed Mustang
SportsRoof were limited to
sheetmetal and suspension,
among a few other tricks,
and the interiors are
standard Mustang fare.
In bringing the interior
back to showroom-fresh
condition, the team at
Billups Classic Cars used
new old stock (N.O.S.) or
excellent used Ford Motor
Co. parts whenever the
car’s original parts couldn’t
be made to look new again.
The Black Jade Boss ’9
was fitted with used door
panels, an N.O.S. dashpad,
and new carpet. Billups
said they also had to make a
repair to the driver seat.
When it comes to the
429 engine—the heart of
the Boss ’9—Jason and
Scott trusted the work to
their father. Gerald Billups
has the Midas touch when
it comes to Ford engines,
especially big-blocks and
the hemi-head 429 in
particular—even if they
might drive him a little mad
sometimes. “He hates these
engines because of those
O-rings,” Billups jokes.
Those O-rings are found
on both early Boss 429
S-series engines and later
T-series 429s because the
engines don’t use gaskets
between the aluminum
heads and the cast-iron
engine blocks. The O-ringsTHE MISSING LINK{BOSS 429}
QOnly a few pieces were needed to bring the Boss 429’s trunk up to concours level—as can be seen in these before and after images.