I will soon be running brake and fuel lines. What do you guys recommend for a tool or tools to use when fabricating your own brake and fuel lines? Is there a common size diameter for both brake and fuel lines so I can just get one set of dies for forming and flanging?

 

3/16 is standard for brake (in steel) and 1/4-3/8 is the standard for fuel... this might help

https://www.fordtruckzone.com/thread...trucks.661906/

john

 

The benders usually have a set of different dies included anyway right?

 

Thanks John, lots of information there. Thanks you very much for that link. Looking forward to more response from guys who have done their own lines or bought the prebent.

 

I have only used pre-bent on 1 project and it was only the front part non-ford and could not use all of it because of changes I was making.


So with that said how much of the pre-bent line kit can you use? You using dics for drums out to the wheel and cut it short to add rubber hose?
Using stock master so that line(s) will be used?


I am also not a big fan of SS lines as they are hard to get the connections to seal. And forget about cutting and flaring unless you have the big dollar tools to do it.


Don't get me wrong I am not trying to turn you off on pre-bent but just to think about how much of that kit you will use is all.


Oh I have made my own lines for setups that did not come in that car. Like a TH400 in a 70 AMC Javelin using the stock radiator cooler & external cooler.



Trick on bending your own, use steel rod (coat hanger) to make a template before bending the tube line and use the template when making it.


How this helps and good luck
Dave ----

 

I used the hand flaring type tools for a couple of projects but bought the Eastwood flaring tool a couple of years ago and wish I bought it sooner. I have never boogered up a flare with the Eastwood tool. It seemed like 1 in 3 had to be redone with the old type tool. For bends I just pick a piece of tube or dowel that's the right size and bend the tubing around it. I've tried benders but can never get on well with them.

 

When it comes to the actual material you use for break lines, beware of the cheep ebay crap. All steel is not equal, too soft and the flares split. Im replacing my just install ones today. Use some quality material. The first practice run had leaks on almost every joint. I used some of the benders shown above for the tight bends, but some hand adjusting seems to work the best.

 

Has anyone used the copper nickel tubing eastwood sells? I can see where bending and flaring at home would maybe be better odds with a softer tube than steel, even at a higher price. But only if its a good product in the end.

 

Yes, but I did not buy it from eastwood. Works very nice, no issues, same deal with the green coated lines sold at autozone and others. I have also used plain steel and painted it, I do not drive anything cool in the snow so no issues with rusting.
I make my brake lines out of 25' rolls. Following GM design I use 3/16 from the proportioning valve to each front wheel, 1/4" from the proportioning valve to the rear axle brake hose, and then 3/16" from the hose to each rear wheel.
I use 5/16" for auto trans lines, 3/8" for fuel line supply side and 5/16" for fuel line return side (if needed).
I hand bend the brake lines and use a cheap hand held bender for the fuel lines and trans lines, or bend by hand around a piece of pipe as needed.
For double flares I used a cheap manual kit for years, worked fine for brake lines, little tough with the 3/8" steel. Green coated and nickel copper flare much easier.
Now I use a hydraulic mastercool double flare kit because it has dies for not only double flares but GM style fuel lines, PS lines, etc..it works great.
Tips to help...lube the dies and line when making the double flare. Also on the 2nd step using the cone I do not crank the snot out of the tool, I form the double flare most of the way but let the fitting the line is threading into form the last part of the double flare, works for me to not have leaks.

 

Dave, sounds like you have a lot of experience. What kind of hydraulic flanger did you end up buying? I have three trucks to use so not sure how much I will invest in a tool, but once the three trucks are done, probably not a lot I will use it for. I have used those pre made lines several times, from auto zone and Orillyes, but have never been confident about the quality.

 

I have this one, prices are all over the place so shop around if you want to get one. Mastercool 71475. It also does metric bubble flares, so if when I have to adapt a newer part to an older part I can make a line with a regular double flare on one end and a bubble flare on the other.
If all you are doing are double flares, then a quality hand double flare kit like an OTC will do fine. Stay away from chinese cheap junk, the dies are NG.

OTC kit 6503

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/o...e2-_-otc-tools

Mastercool kit

Mastercool 71475 Universal Hydraulic Flaring Tool Set - at the Test Equipment Depot

 

That's so funny, I have been looking at that Mastercool flanger forever. I think I actually saw the tool by itself once for around $170 and then was going to consider just picking up the dies I needed. I really liked it and hands down would rather invest in a tool like that compared to the hand crank ones. Although that's not fair as I have never used a better quality hand crank. I think all I would ever use is 3/16, 1/4 and 3/8 and then a set of AN dies to go with it.

 

The mastercool set is a nice kit, for the amount of cars I do it was well worth it. I like it better than the bench mounted eastwood unit that is also popular because you can use the mastercool tool right on the car if needed.

 

I bought the flaring kit from Eastwood on sale for for around $170 shipped. One thing to keep in mind is that if you plan on doing AN fitting that you need an additional adapter. Which is another $80. I then just used the hand held bending tool from Harbor Freight and it worked well for me.

When I ran mine I tried using the tip of using welding wire to get the general idea of your bends. I didn't have much luck with this method. I guess luckily I had found I did nutlike the Nicole Copper brake line and decided to go with stainless instead. Which is much harder to bend. I had already bought the NICOP line so I used that to do all my fitting bends and then just matched those with the stainless.

I also used this article that gave me some GREAT tips on using the bender and setting up template pieces of tubing. Made things SO easy to bend up.

Brakeline Bending Tip

 

Thanks Outlaw, awesome tip on the bender. I was thinking the nickel copper would be a cake walk for flaring and bending, considering my experience. That was the major reason I was leaning in that direction. Stainless sounds hard core but if I had the confidence, I would prefer it. What was your reason for not liking the nickel copper?