Classic Tube Brake Line Kits. OE or Stainless?

[Yarb]

Looking to replace my rusted lines. Any information/experience with replacing the lines much appreciated. 
This is the supplier mentioned in an earlier post. Thanks

[Patcon]

I would use Fedhill material and make my own

[dutchzcarguy]

I don't know what Fedhill material is.. but i would not use stainless lines, it's much to hard and cause leakes..

I used sort of copper alloy lines, they are not expensive and a softer material and make perfect connections. you need a tool to make the protrusion.. or whatever it's called at the end of the line..  you can get those in a toolshop for a few bucks.

[DC871F]

14 hours ago, Patcon said:

I would use Fedhill material and make my own

This has been in the back my head ever since starting my project. I've been trying to figure out how I was going to make all the hydraulic lines look new. Cost comparison between kits and making your own, I wonder? (Time and hassle)

Edited December 29, 2021 by DC871F

[dutchzcarguy]

1 hour ago, DC871F said:

Cost comparison between kits and making your own

Over here (and there i guess!) you can buy the line by the  eh.. meter/yard/foot.. whateverrrr.. and cheap. i modelled the line after the old one.

Once you got a tool to make the ends it's very simple to replace any line and for low price!

[Yarb]

Unfortunately all of my lines are rusted from being stored in a whse for 15 years. Junction blocks are my concern as well 

[dutchzcarguy]

2 minutes ago, Yarb said:

all of my lines are rusted from being stored

Thats another advantage of the copper alloys as well  i have some stored over 20 years (warm and dry garage attic) and they still look like new.. it does not oxidate much.

[Patcon]

http://fedhillusa.com/

Cunifer, copper nickel alloy and they are really nice to deal with.

A little scotch brite to clean the lines up nice.

A nice brake line flaring tool is expensive but a joy to use. There was a recent thread about a less expensive tool that worked good too

[DC871F]

19 minutes ago, Patcon said:

http://fedhillusa.com/

Cunifer, copper nickel alloy and they are really nice to deal with.

A little scotch brite to clean the lines up nice.

A nice brake line flaring tool is expensive but a joy to use. There was a recent thread about a less expensive tool that worked good too

Well I'm really liking these. More labor........

I'm not counting my hours so theres that.

[87mj]

I went with classic tube.  I bought them with the expectation that I could get them plated yellow zinc like they were from the factory.  The plater didn't think he could plate them.  Regardless, I installed them and I was very happy with the result.   They ship them in a very large carton to reduce the number of bends (ie folds) they need to make in order to package them.  Even taking that into consideration, you will still need to straighten them and bend them in other areas. 

I wanted to make sure I still used the rubber brake line insulators in the brackets.  I also had another car I could reference to make sure I ran everything in the correct holes.  I did not want to see any waves in the tubes.  Even a small 8" section.  I bought a brake line bending tool and a brake line straightening tool.  Without those, it would have been impossible and it would have looked terrible.  If I had it to do over, I would have done the same thing.  I have one section I need to adjust.  Other than that, it looks like someone smarter than me did it.

BTW, I am in the middle of a ground up restoration.  I dont remember any job being any more difficult than running those brake lines through the transmission tunnel and into those rubber insulators.  Take some liquid patience (one bottle), then work for 1/2 hour and repeat the process a few times.  Then work on it again next weekend.

[dutchzcarguy]

18 hours ago, Patcon said:

Cunifer, copper nickel alloy

Yeah thats what i used! Didn't know the name..

18 hours ago, DC871F said:

nice brake line flaring tool

Yeah thats the name.. a flairing tool, one needs one that has a good grip on the line to make the flair right!

[foosman]

I put a set of the Classic Tube OE steel lines (minus the fuel vent line - I reused my OE one) in my 5/71 about a year ago.  Overall, I'm happy with the kit but several of the lines needed some adjustment to fit correctly.  They weren't exact matches to the originals, but it's hard to say whether my originals hadn't been "adjusted" by a PO.  In particular, the clutch master cylinder line was way different from my original, and the several of the bends in the firewall area needed to be adjusted to match the insulators and the spacing/angles of the other lines in the 3-gang and 4-gang insulators.  The OE steel lines are easy to rework as needed - I adjusted mine by hand, and they came out good enough for me.  Still on the fence about investing in the tooling to rework the bend on the top line on the driver-side firewall so it's a bit smoother.

On a related note, if you decide to replace the insulators and brackets, the set I used is from Zcar Depot.  It's ok, but the set I received had a few shortcomings to be aware of.  The fuel return line hole in the tranny tunnel insulators is way too big for the small OE fuel return line.  The 3D-printed blocks are stiffer, so they will require more effort to install, and are visually different than the OE rubber for those who care.  Also, the kit came with an incorrect "short" bracket for the fuel vent line (the long single-line bracket on the driver-side firewall), so I cleaned and reused my OE clamp.  The urethane block for that clamp is sized for the smaller diameter brake line, not the larger diameter vent line, so I reamed out the block as best I could.  I'm not building a 100-point car, and it was quite a bit cheaper than the same set from 240zrubberparts.com, but that set looks like it avoids all the shortcomings of this one.  If I had to do it again, I'd apologize to my wallet and go with 240zrubberparts.com.