The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Stainless Steel brake and fuel lines?

I need a fair amount of 3/16" and 3/8" SS line for my project.
The best prices I have found are about $3 and $4 a foot respectivly.
I think I should be able to find a better deal than that on say 30 or 40 feet of each.
Any one have a lead on beter prices?
Thanks,
Grigg

Last time I bought some I got it from Inline Tube, I don't really want to deal with them again if given a choice.

You may want to check Speedway motors. I know that they carry stainless line, but i'm not sure about pricing.

Thanks,
I checked speedway motors, there products are kinda hard to search on the site, I did not find much.

I did check McMaster Carr, and they have the best price by far for 3/8" stainless in a 50 foot coil. Just over $1 a foot, I can live with that.
They don't list a coil of 3/16", but I'll call and ask about that. They do sell it in 6' lengths, but I need some longer.

Grigg

Summit racing sells coils of stainless,mild steel,and aluminum,the stainless is I think about $30 for 20 or 25 feet of it,I used it doing the brake lines on my 71 camaro,it wa real difficult to get a good flare on the ends for the fittings though.

here is the one for 3/16"
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2D220236&N=4294924496+115&autoview=sku

And for 3/8"
http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2D220238&N=4294924496+115&autoview=sku

And the tube nuts
http://store.summitracing.com/egnse...ordSearch&DDS=1&N=4294924496+115

So it looks like summit for everything but the 3/8" that is cheaper at McMaster Carr.

I have made a bunch of stainless lines before, and a top of the line flaring tool is a must.

Thanks for your help,
Grigg

Keep in mind you don't have to double flare stainless. A regular flare is all they need.

For brake lines I think it wise to double flare.
It may even be the law?

Not on stainless, it'll crack. Stainless line uses different fittings and a different angle on the flare from standard steel, 37 1/2 degrees instead of 45. I don't think there are any laws, other than the laws of physics, involved. I can say that single flares on plain steel will leak.

I have seccusfully double flared at 45 degrees nine different 3/16" stainless brake lines on my truck, with about 12,000 miles in two years I have had no problems.
All I have read on the subject reccomend the method I used for stainless brake lines.

There are two common types of flarred tube connections.
The 45 degree and the 37.5 degree.

45 is used with a single flare sometimes. For brake lines I belive, but am not sure, that a double flare is required by law in the US. Regardless of a law or not the 45 degree double flare is stronger, less likely to crack in the flare, and more likely to seal than a single flare.

The 37.5 degree flare is never double flared that I know of. It does require a backup sleve for better support of the flare in the fitting to reduce the likely hood of the flared part breaking off.

All materials can be flared either way.

I may not be 100% right about all this but I have tried to indicate where I am unsure.
There are some quite good profesional explinations out there on the web explaning the different types of tube connections and there uses. I suggest yall look them up before doing any sort of critical plumbing job like brake or fuel lines.
I'll try and post a link to a better explination when I find one.

Grigg

Learn somthing new all the time! I was always told that you couldn't double flare stainless, and most kits that I had seen used the single flare with the sleeves. I suppose that it would depend on the grade of stainless tube that would determinr whether it can be double flared or not. I will say that I would prefer a double flare on brake/feul line due to the extra strength.

Do note that stainless is hard to double flare and the best flarring tool money can buy is a good investment.

Stainless should also be annealed. Some is to hard to flare, be carefull what you buy.

I double flared mine, with an inexpensive flaring tool (new).. no leaks so far... but I used the longest prefabbed lines I could find, bent and cut them down as I needed to.

Hi All,
Just got the recent Eastwood catalog. They carry 3/16" and 1/4" brake line kits. You get 20' of stainless tube, and 16 assorted SAE double flare SS fittings. $69.99 for the 3/16 kit and $79.99 for the the 1/4" kit. I know this is no help to you Grigg because you need 3/8" but I thought the others might find this interesting.
Rick

Try Inline Tube. Good products. here's a link.
http://www.inlinetube.com/

I bought my SS brake lines from a firm called Classic Tube . They deal primarily in prebent applications; I'm not sure if they sell it in bulk or not.

I copped out and bought the prebent/preflared lines because I was doing the brake job in an unheated quonset hut in December, and didn't want to screw around with bending cold stainless steel tubing.

Classic Tube was very, VERY good to deal with. Aside from a shipping error -- which they fixed that same day -- I had no problems.

I just checked out Classic Tube, they do have bulk line in 20' lengths. They have it up to 1/2" dia. They have all the fittings and the wire wrap too.

how about SSBC Stainless Steel Brakes Corporation, www.ssbrakes.com

if you can work with 18",24",36" and 5 ft lengths why not get them from NAPA. They have to order them but I found them to be nice. It just takes some planning but I do realize some folks don't want to join the pieces. I did several years ago and still no problems.