About brake lines, Scott Hower wrote:
>Someone on the list mentioned that consistent ISO/bubble flares
>are relatively simple to make. I heard otherwise from the Snap-On
>rep and I trust this guys advice- he deals with pro-mechanics
>every day and knows which tools work and which tools dont.
>Stainless is also much more brittle than copper.
Here's my two cents worth:
I agree that replacing the brake lines on a restoration job is a
necessity.
I have made up lots and lots of brake lines, having replumbed everything
from handmade Italian and British cars to American iron from the 40's,
50's and 60's. It's really very easy to make the flares. Bending the
line so that it looks like a factory installation is the hard part.
When I have disassembled a car so that I will lose track of the original
run of the lines, I have used drawings and photographs to get the lines
right.
On the 3/16 line that is used for most brake piping, I usually bend it
with my fingers. I use a bending tool for larger sizes, or for
stainless steel. What I do on British cars is to use the original
fittings, which on later cars use a standard 3/8 fine thread, but which
look different from American fittings. On cars with strange threads of
various types (either oddball metrics or British), you often have no
choice but to reuse the old fittings.
I find that the bubble flares I make are less prone to leakage than the
ones that come on factory-made (American manufacture) brake lines. I
use a tool that I think came from Eastwood, though I believe Snap-On and
Mac are now making one available. The regular, female flares are
equally easy to make. Your Snap-On man is way off base in saying that
the flares are hard to get right.
Cost is also a factor: I've just made up a new set of brake lines for a
TD, and though I haven't added it up I'm sure the cost of materials is
way under $20. The labor is hard to compare, since making the lines and
installing them is one process (and it is time consuming if you are
concerned with the appearance of the job). You'd have to add the
purchase and installation costs of premade lines for
comparison--remember that you will have to do some bending on them, as
well. Of course, if you are doing it yourself the materials are your
only cost.
As for material, many hand-made (and French) cars have come from the
factory with copper lines, which seem to work fine. I'm sure they were
built that way because copper is easier to work, though it's true that
it is not considered to be strong enough by modern safety standards. I
tend to replace them with steel, despite the lack of originality. Most
cars (including MG's) come with mild steel lines, which is what I prefer
to work with. They are much easier to bend than stainless, and they look
exactly like the lines that came on most cars from the factory. Their
life varies depending on the use that the car sees, but since most
people doing restoration work on their cars will not use them in the
snow and will change the brake fluid regularly, the life is not a
problem at all. Steel lines whose life is shortened by rust still last
about 20 years.
I haven't found stainless to be particularly brittle, though I haven't
used it much. I did find that brittleness is a problem with the
copper-covered, thin-wall steel tubing used on some antique cars. I
have never seen a car with aluminum brake lines, and I would not
recommend it.
John Dean
Charlottesville, VA USA
|