Brake and Fuel line insulator construction

[GreenZZZ]

I need some Datsun material science advice. Last years thread talks about fabricating insulators to replace the old rubber for the car's plumbing.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29518&highlight=brake+line+rubber

What is a good source of rubber for this task? Something like this...

http://www.amazon.com/Superior-18-1701-Rubber-Spring-Booster/dp/B00029K20M/ref=pd_sbs_auto_3

or maybe this

http://www.jewelrysupply.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20399

[Zs-ondabrain]

What exactly are you missing / or is in bad shape. I may have extras.

I took the best of what I had, washed it in almost hot water with soap and a small stainless steel wire brush (very gentle but cleans well) This leaves them still looking dirty so I sprayed some break cleaner on a rag and gave them a once over and they look almost new.

The brackets got media blasted then sprayed with some Metal Etching primer, then coated with some hi temp Gloss black.

They came out pretty nice and look almost new.

Dave

[cbudvet]

I have been thinking about the same thing. I was planning to use rubber barstock from mcmastercarr.com They have a lot of materials for just about anything. One of them is natural and synthetic rubber in a variety of sizes and shapes. You might want to check it out.

carl

[Langford Chuck]

yes, i am in the same boat: the rubber is not good and all the metal clips have rusted out or are in poor shape. wouldn't mind seeing pics of how other people have fixed the problem. I think sourcing the rubber should be not too hard, but I am interested in different solutions to clip it to the sheet metal. Copying the original seems feasible, but perhaps there is a more elegant looking solution?

[Langford Chuck]

i was thinking of something like this: (maybe a bit pricey though, and not everyone likes billet)

[GreenZZZ]

It took a long time to get here, but got the lines installed. I took the exterior of the lines down to bare metal and coated with Silver POR-15. Same with the clips. I black lacquered the heads of the 4mm bolts. I could have plated the parts, but I would have had to bend them up quite a bit to fit into the plating dip tanks, so instead I went with POR. The Silver POR isn't the greatest color, but is a huge improvement cosmetically from what the lines looked before paint.

Thanks so much Dave for the spare insulators!

Pic1

Pic2

Pic3

Edited October 29, 2011 by GreenZZZ

[240260280z]

I did this thankless job in August on rotten, rusty lines and fasteners. I replaces all lines with new and re-used the old rubber and brackets I wire brushed all of the brackets, ospho, etching primer then gloss black.

I retapped some of the holes to larger (either m3to m4 or m4 to m5) where required. I used all new ss hardware to replace the rotten stuff and lotsof anti-seize for when the next guy does this again in 40 years.

For the rubber; I just wire brushed with a brass brush and washed. I soaked the rubber with crusted rust in ospho then wire brushed and repeated.

[cbudvet]

I was able to get a set of reproduction insulators from someone on this site. There were a few that I still needed so I made them with some synthetic rubber I got from MaMaster Carr and my drill press. I replaced the hard lines with stainless steel ones from Classic Tubing. They required a little tweaking but for the most part were pre-bent and went in without too much trouble.

Carl

[5thhorsemann]

GreenZZZ, looks amazing, excellent work, you get an at-a-boy on the tubing and a thanks..............Just so it doesn't feel thankless...............

[Zs-ondabrain]

You're quite welcome Lee. Looks beautiful. then again, I knew it would.

Dave

[GreenZZZ]

The insulators anywhere close to the exhaust system crumbled to pieces when I dismantled the car in '09. Texas is just too damn hot. The car had very little rust, but all the rubber was a write off. The insulators from Dave from cars up in the northwest were in excellent shape.

The brake/fuel lines were in such good shape I didn't replace them. Good to know there are replacements available. Carl, did you eliminate the vapor return line in your car?