Fuel/Brake line bender?

[LuckyWinner]

Theres a couple out on the market, anyone point me to a good one they were happy with?

[skullandbones]

Pittsburgh Tubing Bender. Degrees marked 0 to 180 degrees, Die Range 1/4-5/16-3/8. I thought this worked pretty well in most cases even some rather tight applications. Harbor Freight Tools, item #: 03755. WEK.

[Hankl]

This one is made by Imperial, a little more costly, $25-45, on E-Bay, but it will hold up to any type of tubing.

http://www.etoolcart.com/ProductImages/brake/MC70069-L.jpg

This is what we use in the shop, about double the price, but good tools last a lifetime. You can find it on E-Bay for about $70.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$(KGrHqUOKowE4vg0Shu9BOPzp4nQ,w~~0_12.JPG

Hank :cool:

[Martin]

I've always liked the Breeze solution.

http://breezeautomotive.com/details.php?prod_id=721

He does them for different rear ends as well.

I've read too many horror stories about the time it takes, things going wrong etc. I'm not sure what a Brake bending tool would cost, but unless I was going to do it many times I think I'll just stick to the Breeze solution.

Is it possible to hire a brake bender for a day? Maybe borrow one from another forum member that is nearby?

Martin

[Gumball]

I used a combination of the first one in Hank's post, as well as an old-fashioned "barrel" type that just had a round barrel with grooves for each of the sizes of tubing and a "fence" to hold the tubing in place while bending it around the barrel. I think the "barrel" type is available at most autoparts stores or on-line.

Here are a couple of pictures of my bends - both brake and fuel lines:
http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/img_4071.jpg
http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/img_4072.jpg
http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/img_4121.jpg

[slimcobra]

Chris, what master cylinder did you use?

[Gumball]

Slim - It's a new Ford (SVT Cobra) m/c from FFR. I removed the plastic reservior and replaced it with the cans from Moss Motors, flex lines from Pegasus Autoracing Supply, and adapters from Lodestone Billetworks. Rick from Lodestone is a vendor here and makes really cool little parts like these adapter nipples to allow for remote reservoirs with a stock m/c. Here are a couple of better pictures of the m/c set-up.

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/img_4085.jpg

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/img_4076.jpg

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/CCRsAC/img_4054.jpg

Hope that helps!

[Pierre B]

Having done this, I understand Fezzek's point about wanting to make the tube bending process as easy and trouble free as possible. For me, though, building one of these cars was an educational process along with everything else. Being able to bend and flare these lines is an acquired skill, but I think one worth having. Shaping and running these lines myself gave me the freedom of having whatever configuration I wanted, and so I could route the lines wherever I chose. For sure, a few of the tubes had to be sacrificed to the effort but, in the end, I enjoyed learning about this: something I had never ever done before. All in all, I probably needed to redo two or three brake lines, but none of the fuel lines was problematical.

[Gumball]

I'll admit to one line that I had to re-do.

CR

[efnfast]

I use this

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GKC0R2WDL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

For more complex/tighter bends that I can't do in there I'll stick my breaker bar in the vice and use that to help form tighter bends

[RonSchofield]

I used the Imperial Triple Head Bender - 470FH . I don't think you can find a better product.

https://www.flowline.net/contentonly.aspx?file=images/items/470-fh_l.jpg

[Mustang Man]

While I have made custom lines and flared many in the past, for our build I used all pre-cut and flared lines. Some from the kit, some extras I got locally to make up all of my brake lines. I also didn't use any sort of bender tool. I simply found the radious I needed (pole, can, chrome socket, the 4-inch frame tube, etc.) and carefully bent the lines using those "dies" for ther radius I needed. Worked perfectly...

HTH...
Mark

[Gumball]

The photo by efen is the style I referred to as the "barrel" type.

[skullandbones]

Actually, I have about 4 of these various types of benders. I don't know if other guys have experienced the same but I found that the practice spent on the particular bender was directly proportional to the end product. So if I started now, I could do perfect bends for a new project. In other words, I wasted some tubing because the first couple (or more) atttempts just didn't look like they belonged on the project even thought they would have worked. I didn't have any problems with brake lines but the fuel lines were more difficult. WEK.

[slimcobra]

Gumball thanks for the info. I love the setup.

[timp2]

The Imperial benders refered to above work well and are inexpensive. The flaring tool is where you should put your money. Cheap flaring tools do not grip the tubing well and will cause you grief after you painstakingly made all of those bends and end up with a flare that does not seal correctly. You will need a good flare tool that is capable of double flares for your brake lines.