Brake Lines Options

[mepstein]

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[technicalninja]

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Add one more line

$500 per hour if another shop worked on it first AND you didn't tell me!



Had one TODAY that added 3 hours to the diag because of this...

Intentionally screw up the diag because you wanted to save some money?

You're going to need to find yet another shop as the good one you did find BANISHED YOU!

[TINKERGINEERING]

Haha thanks guys! I took a break from thinking about brakes to finish the electrical and work on the headlights, but now it's time to get back into it and I am looking forward to it! I will be in contact with Eric and this will definitely be a learning opportunity! thank you all so much for the support!

[76-914]

I'm going to play the Devil's Advocate here and say "Go for it Frances". You impress me as the kind of person that enjoys the experience of creation and the lessons that failure teaches. A $10 bender will suffice but don't buy a cheap double flaring tool. Aircraft Spruce sells a good one. As Chris mentioned, steel is fine.

Reiterating - European vehicles like a 914 use a ISO bubble flare. These are not interchangeable with an inverted double flare

Oops! Thx for that correction. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[willieg]

IMHO, Copper nickel brake lines are much easier to bend and form than stainless steel lines. And accessible through Summit Racing.

[bkrantz]

Stainless steel is not needed or easy to form the ends. I have formed a few from straight lunes from FLAPS. One thing to watch for are the fittings. The lines from FLAPS do not have full thread like original lines. I had one nearly stripped out the threads in an aluminum caliper.
I woyld hit the easy button and buy a set from PMB

And be warned that stainless lines are a beech to get to seal at all the fittings. I had to crank down all the fittings WAY more than than I ever did for mild steel lines, and even then it took several tries for one joint.

I initially ordered some stainless lines but sent them back for the steel ones. As noted above, had ones I could not get to seal without tightening down more than I was comfortable with. Since there are no gaskets/washers involved, a good seal requires the ends to 'crush' a little.
The big advantages to stainless are corrosion resistance and much higher braking pressures. Unless you plan to take yours swimming in the ocean or do regular panic stops, steel lines are all you need.

If I did it over again, I would do what you did. And I agree that for our typical use, Stainless is overkill.

[worn]

+1 steel lines and buy them. Bubble flares aren’t easy to do well, especially if you’re not doing it regularly and with high end tools.

If you want to bend your own custom lines, buy pre-made, flared tubing at FLAPS, bend to your hearts desire. Various lengths available pre-flared.

The only thing worse than a vehicle that won’t Go is one that wont Stop.

I got the bubble flares to work. Now ask me how many flaring tool sets I have in the garage. Lots of them. If you want to have the fun of learning, do yourself a favor and buy the best tools that you can find. That will give a price tag similar to buying lines from PMB, but then you have the tooling and knowledge for next time around. Not mentioned yet, but having the luxury of blaming someone else can be priceless.

[worn]

IMHO, Copper nickel brake lines are much easier to bend and form than stainless steel lines. And accessible through Summit Racing.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) or FLAPS.

[Cairo94507]

I bought a complete set of Eric's "green" steel lines for my car and never looked back. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)