old fuel lines and brake lines -Replacement Where and How? Tech tips please!

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greymouser7

greymouser7

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I helped a guy that used to be my friend build/resto-mod a derelict satellite I owned.

On a strict budget we blew brake fluid, paint thinner, Oshpo rust inhibitor, and rubbing alcohol through the lines and blew them out with pressurized air. Once acetone came out clear without brown rust, he used them on a mild 360 with no problems (car came with 318).

I was jacking up my car (76? Dodge Aspen) yesterday and finally saw where the routed the lines (much more difficult than my 73 road runner).

I need to get these done without placing the lines near the e-brake cable, or interfering with anything else. I would love some suggestions.

I built my own brake line on my road runner decades ago when the autoparts store had multi-sized brake line pieces in a bin. They don't seem to have that now. Oreilly's near me has nickel copper lines, but is that good enough?

Do i have to get tubing flare kit or can I order/go-drive-and-buy the same lines again somewhere?

My chevy buddy is all about a hose (not rubber i am sure, but I don't know the material) for his firebird- that stuff is cheap -but how to you end the hose line without getting leaks? I was considering that material for a fuel return line. Evidently, even buying it braided is not hard. It has been a few deployments since i looked at fuel hoses. I thought they were vulnerable to ethanol. Is that true?

Please give me advice for fuel lines and brake lines. THANK YOU!!
 
Your life and safety depend on your brake lines. Just cough up the cash and buy new premade stainless lines. Unless you like paying yourself $2 an hour to save some cash plus all the aggravation.
 
str12-340 said:
Your life and safety depend on your brake lines. Just cough up the cash and buy new premade stainless lines. Unless you like paying yourself $2 an hour to save some cash plus all the aggravation.
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This is the type of crappy result I usually got looking for brake kits for my car.: Dorman Products - Search Results
 
The lines we carry are mild steel with a corrosion inhibitor coating on the outside. Never heard of nickle copper?
 
RustyRatRod said:
The lines we carry are mild steel with a corrosion inhibitor coating on the outside. Never heard of nickle copper?
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I heard of it, but never worked with nor looked into it. are these compatible with the old stainless lines?
What size line is a brake line? Oreilly's has multiple size lines
 
greymouser7 said:
I heard of it, but never worked with nor looked into it. are these compatible with the old stainless lines?
What size line is a brake line? Oreilly's has multiple size lines
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What old stainless lines? Mopar used mild steel. They never used stainless fuel or brake lines.
 
Nickle copper is awesome. It bends easily and is DOT approved. I hear it eventually turns green.
 
RustyRatRod said:
What old stainless lines? Mopar used mild steel. They never used stainless fuel or brake lines.
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the old stainless lines i bought over a decade ago to route the brake fluid to my drums on my road runner. they used to store them in a tube in the autoparts store, we would pick out the length we needed, it already came with flared ends and two floater/sliding male screwin pieces
 
I would just run what O'Reilly stocks. Do you think they are going to stock unsafe brake line? I've used what we sell a good bit.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I would just run what O'Reilly stocks. Do you think they are going to stock unsafe brake line? I've used what we sell a good bit.
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That's good logic, but I would bet you money you could find something entirely unsafe that an autoparts store sells.
My store doesn't have allot left - Do I order 3/16" line?

Rob what would you do to build/install fuel line on a daily driver (LA 360 street)?
 
greymouser7 said:
That's good logic, but I would bet you money you could find something entirely unsafe that an autoparts store sells.
My store doesn't have allot left - Do I order 3/16" line?

Rob what would you do to build/install fuel line on a daily driver (LA 360 street)?
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Go grab some O'Reilly line. lol
 
I checked all the usual sources for aftermarket prebent line and NOBODY carries this, much to my surprise!!! I can feel your pain. I'm restoring an 1984 Dodge Rampage for my wife and parts are nonexistent. It reminds me of working on my Darts in the 90s before the aftermarket came on strong...
 
The nickel/copper lines usually have a drab green coating, they are rolled into a double wall tube from a copper coated flat roll of steel and run through a furnace that fuses it together they are soft and easy to bend compared to the original steel lines. They usually pressure test burst at around 2000psi, they are usually 4.76 mm in diameter. They work great and bend easy but are not original looking. Ive used stainless lines in the past which are great but a ***** to bend and hard to seal. My favorite lines are the OE style from inline tube.
 
Poly armor line is the stuff with the green coating, its basically a steel line with a plastic coating over it, as long as you don't scratch the coating off it will last a while even in the rust belt, but if the coating gets rubbed off there's no corrosion protection.
Copper nickel line looks like a new penny before it's exposed to the elements.

I've installed probably a thousand feet of this stuff in the past decade working on peoples rot-box daily drivers here in the salt belt, I haven't seen it fail (rot out) yet, the only problem I've had is when replacing a brake hose the steel fittings rust themselves to the line.
Copper nickel is well worth the extra money, you'll never have to replace the hard lines again. Oh and it's super easy to work with, flares easy and bends by hand.
 
I buy bulk line and make my own.
Any parts store selling pre-made line with inverted flare fittings is safe for brakes.
I also have strapped in many feet of line,on daily rust bombs for the most part,and yet to see the repairs fail.
Anti-sieze between tube and nut really helps with preventing them from siezing.may even assist with thightening for a better seal. Be cheap with it though, dont want to pollute the brake system with lord knows what.
Tighten,loosen,tighten. Helps seat the flare in the fitting.
 
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