As many automobile enthusiasts know, from the beginning the Mustang was regularly changing. In addition to subtle changes every year, the car underwent major changes every two years. And by '71, Ford was producing the biggest, heaviest Mustang to date. Many were turned off by the looks and "weight gain" of the new car. But, many think the '71-'73 Mustangs were the most balanced, fun cars to drive.

In 1971, the first year of this new body style, Ford decided to build just under 2,000 Boss 351 Mustangs. Equipped with high compression forged pistons and a solid roller camshaft, the Boss 351 made 330 hp and 370 lb-ft of torque. That wonderful engine pushed this "heavy" car to mid 13 second passes.

To date, we know that the car appears to be an early production Boss 351 that was apparently purchased by Ford Motor Company Marketing Division. Check back soon as we uncover more information about this rare car.

Like any major project, the first step was to disassemble the entire vehicle. Once all the trim and sheet metal were removed, it was time to get the car on the rotisserie.

Once the car was mounted on one of our dedicated Mustang jigs, it was then put on our wonderful AutoTwirler rotisserie. From there it was off to the media blaster for a fresh start.

Like most cars, the blaster revealed a lot. Overall the car is fairly solid. It will need some floor work in the trunk and passenger area. The car will also need one new quarter and a patch on the quarter wheel well.

Next up, rust repair. :)

For the '65-68 Mustangs, a rusty lower cowl is fairly common. But after Ford changed the design of the cowl assembly for '69, the frequency of rusty lower cowls dropped considerably. Unfortunately, this Boss sat outside, under a tree for a number of years. As the Nebraska seasons came and went, a large amount of debris accumulated on the passenger side. That moist brush rotted away the passenger side lower cowl.

Unlike '65-68 Mustangs, a lower cowl patch is not available for '71-'73 Mustangs. So, a donor car would have to be found to fix this rusty area. Luckily, we found one in northeast Nebraska. After carefully dissecting the donor car, we removed the section of lower cowl needed to repair the Boss.

The "new" piece was sandblasted, trimmed, and welded into place. Check out the pics to the right of the completed lower cowl with the original blue color sprayed on. The next step will be to line up the upper cowl and weld it back on.

Next up, more rust repair.

The sandblaster tells no lies. After the car was blasted clean, we found a large number of holes and damage in the trunk area. Fortunately, a replacement trunk floor is available for these cars. The next step was to check over the replacement panel to see how much to use.

Check out the next series to see the removal of the old trunk and the replacement panel.

The pictures to the right show the removal of the old floor and the replacement floor section. For the most part, the new floor was a quality piece. Unfortunately, the section near the factory seam was poorly stamped. So, we trimmed the panel short and decided to "butt" weld the new panel to the original. This process also allowed us to retain the original spot welds at the factory seam. Once this is done, it will be incredibly difficult to see the repair.

Check out the next section to see the trunk repair completed.

Check out the pictures to see the installation of the new trunk floor. Once the floor was fully welded in place, the welds were dressed and we moved on the rest of the rust repair.

The last two pictures in this section show the completed trunk area after the undercarriage was sealed and then painted.

Check back soon to see more rust repair and details about the undercarriage color.