99 SVT Contour track slut by PRT Autosport

[Pole120]

I've been slammed with customer work and as a result I'm WAY behind on the build, but I've worked on it when time allowed. Just two quick shots of where the new front end is at. Many more pics of what I've been up to the last few months will follow when time allows.

[Pole120]

Tires mounted and test fit complete. I have a little bit of work to do on the rear fenders just where the bumper meets the body, but other than that everything is spot on. Pumped to see it on the ground in a week or two.

[Pole120]

Well hey there.




Boxes in boxes.




New toys!

[Pole120]

For those that don't know, outside of PRTautosport.com and part ownership in contour.org, I'm also a member of a Midwest car culture blog The Affiliated(theafltd.com). My latest writeup is a fab piece featuring PRT's S13 camber plate adaptation for the Contour/Cougar. While it only scratches the surface of what all went into the project, I hope you find it an interesting read.

http://theafltd.com/2013/03/05/adapt-and-overcome-when-as-low-as-it-goes-just-isnt-low-enough/

[Pole120]

New steering wheel came in, so I got that fitted, and got started on the tubular core support. Hoping to have the core support completed before next weekend. Just need to make the header panel mounts, the custom radiator pockets and weld it in(it's just sitting in there now). Down the road I'll still need to add hood pin tabs, but for now I'm all set. I may end up capping the top and grinding it all smooth to hide the radiator fans, but haven't decided yet.

[Pole120]

I ordered them through a friend with contacts in TDM USA.

[NorCalFocus]

Did you get the TD's from a Perfect Circle?

[Pole120]

Finally had some time to put together another update.

First up: New wheels. As you may have read on the FB page, I decided to skip the 5x114.3 lug conversion for this year. Basically the cost between the conversion, 2 sets of wheels, new rear rotors etc. just would have eaten up way too much of the build budget to justify the cool factor, so I bit the bullet and ordered some 17x8 hubcentric Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2s at 18lbs a piece and they should be here next week. Now if you'll recall I run a 235 tire, so I wanted to mount up and 8" wheel and start looking at offsets to get the car's footprint as wide as possible while keeping the tires off the fenders. I grabbed a TDM 18x8 +44 I had upstairs and got to work playing with spacers etc to get it all set. In the end I have 2 17x8 +33's and 2 +35s on the way. The reason for the stagger is because they were in stock and discounted so I didn't have to wait 6+ weeks and a 2mm spacer is nothing and I may play with spacers for a more agressive fitment later anyway.
















And these are what are on the way:




I also swung down to the local speed shop and grabbed these:





The next piece of news is that I had a friend come over and do some finish welding and another one of the larger parts of this year's build is officially complete. I give you the first ever 240SX camber plate install on a CDW-27 platform vehicle.








Additionally the new rear toe arms are completed and ready for install. After ordering the initial tubes I found them to be a bit shorter than nominal length, so I was able to go up a size for maximum thread engagement. The rod ends have adapters I machined and pressed in to reduce them to 12mm and that's it! Done and ready to install with stock hardware.









Last up is some modification work I never got around to finishing last year. The car runs an NRG steering wheel adapter for a focus, that has a lot of unnecessary material on it I didn't need, so I put it on a diet. Additionally I needed a spacer to allow it to bolt down tight. There is still more work to do, but I will wait until the new wheel I ordered today arrives.


























And the wheel on the way a Grip Royal Knight with black leather and black anodized center.

[Pole120]

Big step tonight as the new strut tower tops are located and tacked in place and I was able to run everything through a test fit. It feels damn good to be this much closer to scratching another big change for this season off the list, not to mention having had this in my had for about 4 years now and finally getting the chance to bring it to life.

Some of you may have wondered why there were dimples cut into the new strut tower tops. I wanted to take a second to point out their purpose. It's a simple way of aligning the plates once they're located on the towers across the vehicle to ensure inline camber adjustment. Here it is small scale:




And full scale:






Modified strut assemblies installed for the first time. Nissan, meet Ford.

[NorCalFocus]

I love the quality of work going into this build.

[Pole120]

Quick update as more parts arrive:

We're relocating the battery and all the bay wiring under the new dash for this year, so I picked up some remote terminals to make charging and jumping easier if ever necessary.




Old toe arm end links compared to the parts we've sourced for our new arms. More info to come on these.




New shift knob project.




New tower tops back from laser cutting. A big thanks to our friend Brandon for hooking it up. With the help of him and his CNC laser table there will be a lot of exciting things happening soon.

[herrakani]

Hope you'll catch it on video when it happens.

[Pole120]

Your beard is not catching fire from the sparks?

It hasn't happened yet. I'm sure it will some day, but I try to keep them away from my face.

[herrakani]

Your beard is not catching fire from the sparks?

[Pole120]

I'll let you know. From what I've been told I should be able to with the PRP software.