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S197 Kiwi Track Rat's Boss 302 resurrection Build Thread Profile - S197 Mustangs

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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
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8,346
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20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Send them an email addressed to the Parts Dept. Manager letting him know right from the beginning with a question , " Have you ever sold parts to a Mustang Fanatic in New Zealand? " Work to see if they can help with this situation and ask if they might be interested in possibly a couple of purchases that would help you both?" Have fun with it and toss in some Kiwi humor ( throw in the damn Hobbits if they are clueless on geography of New Zealand and the World ) and maybe they would even be willing to help with parts at a decent discount.

Hopefully the gentleman has an ever expanding mind and can take a great little marketing idea to his superiors, because tossing out the idea that South Bay Ford is so competitive , " We even sell parts to New Zealand. " Heck they could do a little campaign out of that , just for selling you some parts at a discount. Now if they jump on this, the new term would be some parts at a " Huge Discount , ha. What the heck , I always figure go for the gusto instead of just asking for something to be delivered to your shipper, why not have them bring over the boatload of parts you will need. Granted some might be subject to onerous costs once in the home country , but who knows they might be able to install a new hood or other parts so it appears they came with the damaged Mustang. Thinking aloud , but good luck with getting a little help with the Laguna Seca.
 
118
275
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Auckland, New Zealand
Well my poor crumpled Boss has arrived at the shipper in LA, so that was some good news. Inland delivery was handled by a guy called Chad Loge, who is absolutely fantastic with a very personal service.

50977696292_b880dee86c_c.jpg

I ended up getting hold of a guy at South Bay Ford parts called Don, he's my new best friend and helped a lot. Thankfully they are happy to deliver to the shipper so that is one hurdle overcome for the moment.

I went carefully through their webstore and ordered around 25x SKUs based on what we (Bad Influence and I) thought will be needed from the pics, including airbags which are hazmat and need to be sea freighted. The rest was mainly the key panel and cooling parts so we can get the panel work done and the car running and driving. There will be a bunch of small things left to get, but I am betting that most of that can be air freighted and hopefully some can be found in good used condition to save a bit of money, e.g. the headlights.

Anyway, there's a couple of items Don is waiting on from Detroit so with a bit of luck the parts will be delivered by end of next week and then it's a matter of the car getting loaded and the 5-6 weeks for it cruise across the Pacific and down to Auckland.
 
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118
275
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Auckland, New Zealand
Don at South Bay Ford has confirmed delivery of 99% of the parts to the shipping company. There was a minor issue with one of the parts so that will have to follow slightly later. But man am I getting excited now - I am currently happily riding on the crest of expectation, with a likely steep dive into the trough of "OMG, what have I done!" when the car arrives and the reality hits.

But I'm sure my friend John (Bad Attitude GT350) will make all that go away with his efforts and expertise in getting the car sorted. In the meantime I am enjoying digging through the archive of informative posts here, watching the videos and trying not to spend load more money on parts until after the car is actually fixed! :)
 
118
275
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HPDE
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20+ Years
Auckland, New Zealand
Well since the Mar 11th update I am excited to say the car landed in my driveway yesterday and the parts arrived this morning! I haven't had a chance to really look over it in detail but I can confirm the plate on the intake says it is LS519. It is mostly as expected, the impact was up high on left hand side, the top rail is (as expected) mangled and the strut tower has moved back a fraction. The lower rail is not as bad as I thought it might be which is a good news. Bad Influence is coming over tomorrow to check it out and we'll make sure we have all the essential parts to start the repair.
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,420
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Blair, Nebraska
Congrats on having a very rare School Bus Yellow Boss 302 in New Zealand. I am sure Parnelli Jones would be proud to know a Boss in his tribute color is over in the South Pacific scaring the crap out of Hobbits, ha! Exciting times and we look forward to hearing about your progress but her back like new?
 
118
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Auckland, New Zealand
OK a quick further update with a few weeks under my belt to catch my breath.

My friend John (Bad Influence) came over a couple of weekends ago and we checked over the car, laid out the parts (lots of shiny new black metal from Ford) and worked out a rough list of things missing. On closer inspection it will need at least the front half the the rail on the passenger side as well which I hadn't ordered, plus a windshield. So back to Don at South Bay Ford for more stuff.
51186434311_f9f1ca6864.jpg

To get a car like this legal for the road in New Zealand we have to engage a government approved repair certifier and they have to inspect the car before anything is taken apart. They then oversee the whole repair process and eventual certification of the repairs to allow for registration. We managed to get the certifier over last Saturday morning to do the initial inspection, take around 100 photos of everything and start the paperwork. He will do the under body review when the car goes to John's shop but this step allowed us to get started on disassembling the front of the car and working out what else we need.

Not being all that familiar with Mustangs and with their rarity down here meaning spares aren't easily available we took our time, carefully bagging and labeling everything and keeping a note of part numbers of broken items to order. In a few hours though we got the front off, guards off and side skirts removed. From this:
51186428116_dc1321ea4c.jpg

To this:
51182711899_e476b32e8f.jpg51183009630_a34eff97a7.jpg

As you can see that upper left corner took a decent impact! I will also replace the K frame and front radiator support cross member to ensure everything is perfect. I may do a tubular radiator support but unfortunately there's no way a tubular K frame would be road legal in New Zealand so I'll stick with OEM for that.

Fortunately part of the original front bumper was in the car and I salvaged the brake duct scoop (pic below) from right hand side. I will need a left hand one, though I can't seem to find any available on my internet search (there seem to be full kits, but not individual parts). So may need to commission John to make one for the car unless someone has a source?
51182711789_08f762d5e2.jpg

If anyone also has a good drivers side (LH) '13-'14 headlight I am also on the hunt for a good used one.

And mindful of my comment above that Mustang spares are rare in NZ of course what appeared on our local "Ebay type site" but a complete hood from a '14 GT for $200 NZD (about $150 USD!). Unbelievable!!! Literally a matter of days after my new one lands! Naturally I bought it anyway because ahhhh, well, yeah I guess you can never have too many spares right? 🤣
 
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5-10 Years
Auckland New Zealand
Fortunately we got the parts order mostly right, I was hoping that the RH rail would be ok but it isn't. We want to avoid having the vehicle on the frame machine and then finding out we need parts from the US that will take 6-8 weeks to arrive tying up the machine in the meantime.
Other than the rail surprise its pretty much what I expected to see, once the rail is close to arriving it will be motor and trans out time.
 
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8,180
Depending on your goals, you may want to keep the OEM front subframe, that would allow you to run some "stock" class timed events, if that is not an issue, there are plenty of good aftermarket products around. The Boss 302 Laguna Seca was designed with the BMW in it's sights. It is a hugely capable car in competition, winning races 5 years after it's introduction, until forcibly legislated out of the series. There are plenty examples of that car, using relatively stock components available, so don't go nuts on the mods, it's just not necessary. The only weak part on that car is the MT82 trans, and possibly the clutch, an Exedy Hyper Single will fix that, the trans is a bit more involved, Mad Hatter has a lot of insight on what works there, and he beats his car in competition regularly.
Someplace on this site, you will find a list of modifications allowed in both Pirelli and IMSA competition, (the list is actually very small), stay away from the coil overs as the good ones are extremely expensive. I wish more guys would use the competition guides as their resource, because those cars flew.
Your car is a jet, you're gonna make a lot of foreign (to us) car guys mad.
One last thing, no matter what anybody tells you, don't ever put a watts link on it. ;)

5uzwZLCl.jpg
 
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118
275
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Auckland, New Zealand
Depending on your goals, you may want to keep the OEM front subframe, that would allow you to run some "stock" class timed events, if that is not an issue, there are plenty of good aftermarket products around. The Boss 302 Laguna Seca was designed with the BMW in it's sights. It is a hugely capable car in competition, winning races 5 years after it's introduction, until forcibly legislated out of the series. There are plenty examples of that car, using relatively stock components available, so don't go nuts on the mods, it's just not necessary. The only weak part on that car is the MT82 trans, and possibly the clutch, an Exedy Hyper Single will fix that, the trans is a bit more involved, Mad Hatter has a lot of insight on what works there, and he beats his car in competition regularly.
Someplace on this site, you will find a list of modifications allowed in both Pirelli and IMSA competition, (the list is actually very small), stay away from the coil overs as the good ones are extremely expensive. I wish more guys would use the competition guides as their resource, because those cars flew.
Your car is a jet, you're gonna make a lot of foreign (to us) car guys mad.
One last thing, no matter what anybody tells you, don't ever put a watts link on it. ;)

View attachment 65368

Thanks Blacksheep, great info. This car is purely a "joy of the machine" type car for me, it's all about the overall experience. So while I don;t have to be concerned with any racing class legalities my plan is to keep it fairly stock anyway. Likely just wheels, tires, brake pads, MGW shifter and camber plates type stuff. As we have to pull the engine and trans anyway it would make sense to change the clutch (assuming it is still stock) while the engine is out. For suspension

I definitely won't be doing coilovers any time soon (or probably ever) as here in New Zealand we have an additional headache that any "height adjustable" suspension means your car also has to go through a different "modified vehicle" certification process to be legal for road use. And that's a headache I can't really be bothered dealing with.
 
90
178
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Auckland New Zealand
So the Boss is at my shop now as it's got a date with the frame shop on Monday.
I'll strip the bay of absolutely everything including all suspension and steering so that it makes life easy for the frame guys.
Interior is coming out as well to have access to the floor for welding of the rail.
I do sometimes have to have a giggle at how crudely built these things are coming from a mainly Volkswagen / Audi background but having owned 95 through to current models have always had a soft spot for them.
IMG20210715072014.jpgIMG20210715072023.jpg
Anyway, she's pretty bent as is evident by the following pic. The rails are bent in every direction and I'm hopeful of still being able to drop the engine out from below still.
K frame is bent as well as is one of the engine mount brackets that bolts to the engine block.
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
Ouch, brings back bad memories of my crunch in the good old pre-covid days. I think you will be fine in the end, If you have access to another mustang, measure all the angles and distances you can. The Shock towers are the ones to take extra care over.

To look on the positive side. mine was in the same shape and they put it pack as good as new.

best of luck!!
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,420
8,346
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Sorry to hear the news but you will have a huge group of TMO members following your rebuild and don't hesitate to reach out as there are plenty of super technical folks here ready to help.
 

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