The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Brake lines &#@#$#*&^

I ordered front brake lines for my 1966 GMC Suburban from Inline Tube. Had to buy a set of 4 (1 to master, 2 to wheels and one crossover.)Finally got around to replacing the cross over and it doesn't fit. None of the four look like they would fit any of the places they are supposed to go. I bought them a year ago so I'm not too concerned about eating them.

I know stainless would be next to impossible to home bend but has anyone bent their own in OEM type material?

I see some pliers like thing on Eastwood that they are bending brake lines with but the material seems like it would not bend that easily.

Any advice??

Most flaps have hand bendable lines in varying lengths. I bend their regular lines by hand for sweeping bends. I use a small hand bender for tighter bends. It's shown in the tools I used to build the lines on my '56.

I also installed the dual master cylinder. There's some tips in there you can use if you've never done it.

Go for it. You'll feel good about it when it's done.

The only bad part about bending your own lines is the learning curve. When I finished with the first truck I should have just thrown away all the lines, because they did not look good and fit worse.

I've done more than one truck now and they look great and fit exactingly in place. It's just one of those things that takes a little time to realize how the tubing will bend and always double measure everything.

Remember, tubing is cheap.

Jeff

It is also advantageous to make up a pattern using welding rods. Doing this saves much cussing, just ask my neighbours.

Forced to do my own for my one ton panel, nothing available from inline tube. I purchased a double flare kit with bender and dived into the project. Had to do one line the second time as well as had to learn the flaring procedure. Now it has been three years and my pedal is still perfect and have not lost any fluid. You can do it!

Karl

I redid all the brake lines on my 56 recently and I used the bendable lines sold at my local NAPA and Auto Zone. They are an olive drab color. I also used the very same tools Cletis shows in his picture. In fact, it looks like we have the same flaring kit. You might have a few do-overs, but like another poster said, there is a slight learning curve. For tight bends, use the hand bender and just go easy with it, a little bit at a time. If you try to make the entire bend in one spot, you'll kink the line, so move the tool around a little making little bends until you have the shape you want. Most other bends can be done with your hands--without the tool.

Jon, I had the same thing happen to me... I called Inline Tube and turned out that my 54 had a different brake line configuration... Made a deal with them that I would return them the lines they sent and I paid shipping for my old lines to Inline... They made new lines from my old ones and shipped them to me ... The new lines fit perfect...

Thanks for the input guys. The olive drab at Auto Zone did the trick.

Now if I can find the other #@##!@&*% leak, I'll be all set.