The Rohrbaugh's BOSS 429
It was inevitable! It was bound to happen! It was only a matter of time before another grabber orange Mustang would enter Ed and Ivy Rohrbaugh's growing stable of Mustangs!
This muscle machine is a 1970 Boss 429, which was purchased as a fixer upper in the summer of 1999. Born as a grabber orange Boss 429 on November 11, 1969, she is one of only 499 ever made! Of those, she is one of only 58 which were painted grabber orange with black interior.
For over five years, the Rohrbaugh's watched this Pony go unsold in Hemmings Motor News, for sale at Boss Performance in Spokane. Then earlier this year, she disappeared and was thought by the Rohrbaughs to be gone forever! As fate would have it, they found themselves drooling heavily over a 1970 grabber orange Boss 429 in the judged class at Bellevue Round-up this past year. The owner walked up just as Ivy was taking some still shots of the car. They began to talk, and Ivy shared how much they loved the car and that they allowed an opportunity to own one just like it, get away from them. A grin slowly came across the owners face. He told them that he HAD it for sale. Ivy said "For sale? Are you Joking???" He gave Ivy his name and phone number and Ivy raced back to find Ed and tell him the news!
After much number crunching, Ed and Ivy decided to do the only fiscally irresponsible thing that any Mustang "nut" would do. GO FOR IT! So in September of 1999, they bought the Boss 429 you see pictured above.
It was a relatively rust free car, except for the sheetmetal that was under the battery in the trunk. Many of the Boss 429's unique parts in the engine comparment are gone, including the complete drivetrain...but they will all be rounded up, piece by piece. She had been sitting in storage for over 20 years and it is evident that numerous restoration attempts have been started at tremendous cost, which made putting it all back together difficult for the previous owners to complete the tasks.
Since it has been owned by the Rohrbaughs, they located an engine and transmission in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ed even visited the shop where they had been displaying the engine in the showroom for 18 years. It came out of a '69 Boss 429 that was wrecked in the mid '70's. A deal was struck, the engine and tranny assembly was rebuilt (standard bore, strandard crank) and it was shipped to Ed and Ivy to install. In the meantime, KMC member Lou Sellers supervised a crew of KMCer's including Chris Buxton, Larry Berger, Roger Maggert, Jess Cook, Bob Wolf, John Buckbee, Ole Watson and Wayne Hustis, Rob Whitmore and Todd Whitley in the car's disassembly and preparation for paint, while Ed searched eBay for parts!
The entire Rohrbaugh family contibuted in this endeavor. The process from start to finish took three years. It is a process the Rohrbaugh's have been through and survived before, when they restored their 1970 Boss 302 from start to finish, and that took 2 1/2 yeas.
Ed and Ivy Rohrbaugh joined KMC in November of 1994 and have been active from the start! Ed was the Club's Tech Chair in 1996, Vice President in 1997, President in 1998, served on the Board as Past President in 1999, Tours & Events/Parade Chair on the Board for 2000, Vice President for 2002 (which he took over as President part way through his term), and Tours & Events again in 2003. He designed the Clubs show T-shirts in 1997 and 1998. Ivy was our Show Co-Chair Person in 1995, 2nd Editor in 1996, Newsletter Editor in 1997 and 1998, Secretary in 2002 and Secretary again in 2003. Their son Everett, is serving as Vice President in 2003. They all participate in Garbage Pickup duty, Road trips with the Club, Pony Trails, and Car Shows all over the Pacific Northwest. It's a family thing. If Ed is out of town for work, Ivy doesn't hesitate to take a Stang and go to events without him, but Ed seldom misses an event.
In addition to this Boss 429, they own a fully restored grabber orange 1970 Boss 302. Ed has also owned a 1970 Mach 1 (also grabber orange) which he restored and traded in on a Wimbledon White 1970 Boss 302 in 1976. He met and married Ivy in 1977 and three kids later, they sold that Boss 302 to buy a family car (a 1979 Caprice Classic which they still have). Now that the kids are grown (driving Mustangs of course), Ed and Ivy are collecting Mustangs to restore and have fun with! They also bought a black 1970 Fastback! Ed and Ivy are another perfect example of true Mustang enthusiasm! All of the Rohrbaugh's Mustangs can be found on the Members and thier Mustangs pages of this website, so click to go back to the menu below and see the other Rohrbaugh ponies!
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Also... visit Ed and Ivy's website for info and photo's of the restoration process of the Boss 429 Project!
