DIY Brake Lines

[Clatter]

Anyone ever bend up their own hard brake lines?

I'm using a stock master and 944 calipers,
But so many things are in a different enough location,
That it would be best for me to just bend them all up from scratch..

Can you just order 'murrican car stuff and go to town?

Is there a special metric size for the hard lines?

What material do you like to use, and why?

Always liked Eastwood, and they have so many choices..
http://search.eastwood.com/search?w=brake+line

Thanks in advance..
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[RLFD213]

Here is just my 0.02 on brake lines. Use the hard line to go from the MC to the rear T. The rest get braided lines for. Less lines, they’re flexible and you will be able to bleed the system very easily.

[raygreenwood]

[Brian_e]

I used to plumb tube chassis rockcrawlers from scratch all the time. I had better luck going to the local parts store and getting straight sticks of tube. The rolls of tube are hard to get straight, kink easy, and often damaged in shipping. You will need metric. Its usually green. Each stick will come with both ends flared with a fitting. They come in lots of different lengths.

This is the only bender worth using. The others make large radius sloppy bends.
http://www.radwell.com/Shop?source=GoogleShopping&IgnoreRedirect=true&ItemSingleId=61429619

I have had good luck with a cheap generic metric bubble flare tool. I have also used one of these, and they are worth the money if you think you will be doing more jobs in the future.
http://www.eastwood.com/professional-brake-tubing-flaring-tool.html

Use all the stock hose mounts and plumb the new hardlines into them. The part store hardline fittings will work perfect with stock VW hoses.

You will waste a few sticks of tube learning to get your bends in the right spot, but they are cheap and easy to do over. Start with one factory flared end, bend up your tube, cut it, and re-flare to fit your needs.

Nothing shows a quality in a car build like well done neatly thought out plumbing and wiring.

Brian

[FreeBug]

I wouldn't use braided anything on my brake system unless I could afford to replace them every 2-3 years, cuz how you going to inspect for cracks?

VW parts places sell pre-cut and flared kits, someone here will chime in. Try Aircooled.net? CB?

The difficulty is avoiding pinching when you do the bends. You can do them by hand, if you're careful, and a mini pipe-bending thingy can be useful:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tubing-Tube-Bender-Alumin...1712744849

These are the brakes, so be safe!

[UK Luke 72]

Use Cunifer and male m10x1 fittings.
Keep the flex to a minimum (use hardline where the factory did and use flex where they did too.)
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[jason]

X2 cunifer. Same as copper nickel stuff. Like that it has more corrosion resistance. You can get the hard line and hose cheap. Make a tool to straighten the coils of tube. When I make bends I first make them with coat hangers. Then bend with your hand to the shape of the hanger. Bend against it. Tape the tube to the hanger as you go. Will steady everything as you go. Use round things like sockets and whatnot when bending hanger. You will get professional looking lines. If you lived closer you could use my flare tools. Here is my homemade straightener. Make sure to use the right ends. DIN/ISO bubble flare.

[Krochus]

When I completely redid the lines on my street rail I bought a package of metric bubble flare to 3/16 ivf adaptors due to ease of obtaining hard lines by the stick and a 77 F100 master cylinder. I love my VW’s but any and all variations of the stock master cylinder is absolute crap

A 80’s dodge caravan rear brake hose is about 13” long and has standard 3/8 female inverted flare fittings on both ends I used these for my rear soft lines and they are very easy to work with.

Front EMPI kit, rear Mercedes W123 discs

[raygreenwood]

[Lo Cash John]

I bought this kit a while back.

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-4504-Stinger-Bubble-Flaring/dp/B0015PMZMU

I've had great results BUT it will not do stainless lines. I think at some point I'll upgrade to the nice kit Eastwood sales and pass the old kit on to one of my other VW buddies.
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If you actually drive your VW, you need www.AirMapp.com

My boss told me I need to work on my mutli-tasking. So now when I use the bathroom at work I surf The Samba on my iPhone.

[Clatter]

Thanks for the tips, guys.
Love this forum (sometimes..).

Especially Brian - That tip of getting a bunch green line at the FLAPS was golden.

Some good fun today with the toys!

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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[heimlich]

I had a brake line rust through that went from the MC to the rear. I did it myself. It was the first time I did it and it came out fine. Make sure you put the correct flares on the ends. Loosen the MC a bit so that you can get the flare nut screwed on. That was really the hardest part, screwing the nut onto the MC. You have to get the bend perfect.
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[Rome]

[Nando_b63]

[67rustavenger]

[raygreenwood]

[Nando_b63]

^^^^
Thank you both.

[txoval]

At the parts store it’s best to just go back there and get the lines you need

They have several different lengths that are identical or close to original. On a Beetle, I have never had to cut the ends off and flare…but I imagine it could be required on a Bus or Type3

You can also buy SS kits from Wolfsburg West…correct lengths and ready to bend/install

[jimmyhoffa]

Of the tedious car building tasks, brake lines are one of the more therapeutic for me. I like to make the shapes and stuff.

I did the whole car in Cunifer on the last prep, and it was super easy. You don't even need a bender, just bend it over your roll cage or whatever round object you find. Absolutely no point in a bender.

The stainless work pictured was with an AutoZone line bendy tool and AN 37° flare tool. Gotta have a bender for SS line.
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1974 Chenowth 2RL #1244 Street Legal
My other car isn't ridiculous.

[txoval]

I hate working on brake lines

Your lines look nice