Well into the build of the SHO mentioned in my signature, we arrived at a place where it was time to take the car for a hell run, see how everything was working. The tires were sh*t, so I didn't push too hard, and returned to the shop after a few miles of crusing. Aside from being totally out of alignment, and having all the handling prowess of a hot dog cart because of the bad tires, the car felt good. Not ten minutes after my return, with the nose of the car in the air for some drivetrain diagnostics, the brake pedal went to the floor. A hard line in the driver's rear had completely let go, and the system failed instantly. Needless to say, I was quite thankful that it let go in the garage, and not on the street.
Neither of us working on the car wanted anything to do with having to bend and fit lines together, so we had the car towed to a shop that took on the job without hesitation. The lines in the front of the car were better than the lines in the back, so they did not have to go all the way up to the distribution block in the engine bay, but they re-lined most of the car. In our case, all the lines were discontinued from Ford, so all of this work was custom. When I got the car back, it performed wonderfully, and the work that was done looked nice. The bill on all that was only $401, so if you need hard lines, don't cut corners -- its just not worth it when you can have a professional job for short money. Furthermore, since the Contour is newer, you may still be able to get lines through Ford, though I don't know. I'd call Steve at Tousley Ford and see what he has to say.
