I see no reason not to use the steel tube and do it right to start with, not that hose is bad, but it's not a lot of trouble to redo it as original.

A conduit bender is probably not satisfactory, but good tube bender would be.
You can find nice ones reasonably priced on ebay, look for the brands Swagelok, Imperial, Rigid, and Parker in about that order. I have some of each brand, and they are all nice and would do the job. One advantage to these is they have a pretty tight bend radius, and can easily bend normal tube without any kinking.

Grigg

•1951 GMC 250 in the Project Journals
•1948 Chevrolet 6400 - Detroit Diesel 4-53T - Roadranger 10 speed overdrive - 4 wheel disc brakes
•1952 Chevrolet 3800 pickup
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"First, get a clear notion of what you desire to accomplish, and then in all probability you will succeed in doing it..." -Henry Maudslay-