Any Utah members?

[Swazo]

I just wanted to pop in and say what's up.

I'm an avid member over at CEG, and am in Salt Lake City. I have done some pretty hefty performance and aesthetic custom work to my Contour SVT, and I know there are some wicked Cougars in Utah too.

I only know Pinebox (Dave) from NECO so far, but he sold his sweet Cougar about a year ago. I've seen a lot of nice Cougars' rolling around all over the valley and have decided to see who's who. I'll be popping in NECO a lot from now on, so I thought I'd introduce myself

[MasterD]

Hey, I am in Salt Lake City!! What color is your contour? And what part of Salt Lake are you in (West, South, East, North)?? I am right around 33rd South and 20th East! Man, I wish there were more cougar owners in SLC!!

[Swazo]

I'm close to downtown Salt Lake, but a lot of my friends live around you actually. My SVT is oem Ebony Black, but I've added indigo blue pearl into it and recleared the whole car among other things. It's been down for a bit with an engine swap + turbo kit, HMS trans and a bunch of suspension, brake and other upgrades. Here's a link to my cardomain site that I am putting together...... myurl There's almost no pics on there yet, but I'll update really soon. I'm just taking care of all the small misc. BS to get my car tuned now.

There are a fair share of SVT Contours from contour.org, focus guys from the focal boards and more that have meets in SLC. You should check out the southwest boards @ contour.org, lots of us there and we're always looking for other gear heads to join us.

[MasterD]

Do you do all your engine work yourself? If not, who do you go to and even if you do your own do you have any shops you know do good work?
I'll have to go check out the boards!

Thanks,
Dan

[Swazo]

Yikes, local shops suck! The only local place I would even mention that's worth talking to is Temple Machine. I made the mistake of taking my SVT to Phantom Motorsports when I first got it, for a clutch change. They ruined my SVT radiator, misaligned my subframe, broke my top trans mount's bolt, left my steering rack loose and my engine jumped around so much it cut the power steering line with the crank pulley...... I'm sure I'm forgetting more they FUBAR'd. Since then, I won't trust anyone to work on my SVT other than me. Basicly, none of the tuner shops are worth even looking at. Though, Modern Garage has a good rep from what I've heard.

I had my shortblock built/balanced by Buckshot Motorsports. Rick is a good guy and I would highly recommend his shop, but he's in Iowa. He's on NECO and CEG with the screenname Buckshot77, but you have to go through Arizona Dyno Chip to get an engine from him. For MTX75, there is only one guy to even think about going to and that is Terry Haines @ HMS. He only posts on FCO (fordcontor.org), but I have his email addy if you need it. Even with shipping he beats most prices, but his knowledge is worth twice what you pay.

Other than having my shortblock built/balanced and my MTX75 totally rebuilt/upgraded, I do all my own work.

[MasterD]

Cool, that is what I was afraid of. I will just do the shipping thing and get it done right the first time.

Thanks!!