Boss 429 KK 2547 - 1970

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KK 2547 is widely known in the Mustang world as the "Cunningham Boss 429" named after Jim Cunningham from Zionsville Indiana who spent no less than 15 years restoring this car to a level considered by the Mustang Club of America to be the finest and most authenticly restored thoroughbred Boss 429 in the world today and quite possibly the finest restored car of any kind in the world.

Jim who is the MCA senior assistant head judge for authenticity became the fourth owner of KK 2547 when he found it in 1987 and spent the next 15 years finding new or old stock date code correct parts for the restoration of this car which was in great condtiton to start with having all it's original body panels and floors as well as it's original engine and drivetrain, and all it's original interior and glass.

KK 2547 was built on December 11, 1969 and was the 488th 1970 Boss 429 built out of a production run of 500 cars. It is one of 62 grabber blue with black interior Boss 429s, and is the last Boss 429 built with the California fuel evaporative emissions control system installed in the trunk for California smog requirements.

KK 2547 is documented with original build sheets and Emminger and Marti reports.

In 1991 Jim fully disassembled the car, the body was stripped and media blasted. Jim and a friend rebuilt the original engine using the original rods and crankshaft. The factory original block stayed standard bore. Eight pistons were selected from 19 NOS Ford standard bore size pistons and were hand fitted for the best match for each cylinder. The timing chain and gears, cam,lifters, valves and valve springs, oil pump and screen, water pump, fuel pump, carb, valve covers, oil breather caps, distributor, vacum advancebreaker plate assembly, shaft, rotor, cap and plug wires, engine feed harness, sending units, rev-limiter assembly, air filter, air cleaner seal, smog pump, alternator, regulator, wiring harness , flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, and every other single nut, bolt, screw and part are Ford NOS including all five tires which are brand new some tires still having the paper stickers still on them and the exhaust system which also has the new Ford stickers. In summary Jim found and used over 2500 NOS Ford parts during the 15 year restoration process.

In 1999 Jim took the body shell and body parts as well as the engine and drivetrain to Bob Perkins of Perkins restorations the Chief judge of Authenticity for the Mustang Club of America for the last 20 years and considered to be the finest Mustang restorer in the world for final assembly and detail for the MCA show circuit. For the next two years Jim and Bob worked side by side as their schedules permitted to assemble the finest and most authentic Boss 429 the world has ever seen.

With today's cost of New old stock parts and the waiting list for a Mustang restorer like Bob Perkins or Jim Cunningham to work on a Mustang extended to several years, it's unlikely a Boss 429 restoration to this level of quality and authenticity will ever be able to be completed again. Not to mention the virtual impossibilty due to their schedules of Bob Perkins and Jim Cunningham ever being able to colloborate on another Mustang again?

The car was first shown in the 2002 MCA Grand Nationals where it won a thoroughbred Gold. In 2004 it was shown at the MCA Grand National in Springfield where it again won a Thoroughbred Gold and was given the highest score a Boss 429 has ever achieved. It was also only the second Mustang in MCA history to win a certificate of authenticity which was achieved in 2004 and the first and only Boss 429 in MCA history to have won both a Thoroughbred Gold and Certificate of Authenticity award. As of this writing six Mustangs in the world have been awarded Certificate's of Authenticity after winning a Thoroughbred Gold award.

The Thoroughbred class requires a car to be EXACTLY like it was when it rolled off the assembly line. The MCA considers their Thoroughbred class to be of museum quality where every part has either been meticulously restored or replaced by new old stock, and most importantly all the parts must be date coded prior to when the car was built. As time past fewer and fewer cars could be restored to Thoroughbred levels since the correct date code NOS parts simply didn't exist any longer. So the MCA created the Certificate of Authenticity award eligible exclusively to Mustangs that have won a Thoroughbred Gold award. To obtain a Certificate of Authenticity award the Mustang must as previously stated have won a Thoroughbred Gold award and have every single part on the car be original NOS and date code correct including impossible to find parts like tires, exhaust and the battery. KK 2547 has subsequently won numerous best of show awards and was invited to the prestigious Ford 100th anniversary celebration.

Unfortunately in 2005 Jim began to have serious health issues and was forced to sell his Boss 429 to provide some financial security for his family. We were in the middle of another multiple car purchase and couldn't buy Jim's car. However an astute buyer realizing the NOS parts on the car alone were worth 250,000 dollars or more in todays overheated market bought the car with the intention of selling the NOS parts and replacing them with reproduction parts and then selling the car for a tidy profit. When Jim learned of this he contacted us and we bought the car from the parts hungry buyer before it could be parted out. Just in the nick of time as it happens since less than a week after Jim sold his car he found it on jack stands ready to be stripped in the garage of the parts hungry buyer. So we gave the parts hungry buyer a nice weeks profit and preserved Jim's master piece as a reference restoration car and a significant piece of Ford history.

350,000

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