Leno And The Boss-9

Finish-restoring a Boss 429 and taking it to Jay Leno’s Garage.

- Rob Kinnan

During June 2016, we got a call from Marcus Anghel of Anghel Restorations in Scottsdale, Arizona (AnghelRestorations.com). Marcus had just finished restoring a Boss 429 Mustang and was bringing it to Southern California to be on an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage. He asked if we wanted to tag along. We took him up on the opportunity to check out the car, and also show you what goes into a typical, web­based production using a Hollywood­level production crew. But first, let’s tell the story of the car and how it ended up at Anghel Restorations.

This Candyapple Red 1969 Mustang Boss 429 was originally sold during December 1969 at the well-known dealership Rice and Holman Ford, in Pennsauken, New Jersey ( just outside of Philadelphia), after sitting unsold on two different lots for six months. One of the reasons it had sat so long was the high price of these cars in 1969 (the sticker price was $4,934, which was about a $2,000 premium over a similarly equipped Mach 1 of the time). Also, the United States was going through a recession in 1969 to 1970, so high-priced cars did not sell that well. Joseph Bill Martell (known to everyone as “Mort”) saw this car sitting in the dealership and immediately fell in love with it. He loved performance cars and already owned a 1966 Shelby, so he decided to trade that in as part of the purchase towards the Boss to make it more affordable. He got $2,400 for the Shelby as a trade-in, and shortly afterward, was the proud new owner of a Boss 429.