Brake Lines - DONE! Wahoo!

[MPTech]

I was dreading running the brake-lines, but Rich agreed to help me out, so we tackled it yesterday. What a guy! It turned out to be a nice day so we were able to work with the garage door open all day, and in fact we actually took our jackets off in the afternoon.
We got to work a little after 9am and started with the rear brake-lines. Paul dropped by to get some IRS half-shaft measurements and pulled one side out. While it was out, he helped me install a bearing shield that FFR had omitted and we discovered that the shafts were bottoming out in the diff and the C-Clips were not locking the half-shafts into the diff. After removing some material with a cut-off wheel, they fit fine, but I'm going to notify FFR about this.

Back to brakes:
We ran the line forward from the Flexi-line mount, then T'd the line at the vertical frame member, running to the passenger side, and down then along the round tube-frame to the front.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MPTech/PC040006.jpg

Running to the front Master cylinder.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MPTech/PC040013.jpg

Then we ran the line from the passenger front brake. That was a little trickier!
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MPTech/PC040009.jpg

We started working on the front section, from the T to the Master Cylinder, but ran out of day-light. (And our bosses were making dinner demands) So we wrapped it up.
This morning, after taking my wife to breakfast and Christmas shopping (yuck), I was able to find a couple hours to finish up the last 2 lines and flared the ends. I flared a couple practise pieces first, then tackled my newly fab'd pieces. They weren't perfect (I think the tool is not 100% accurate, but it was pretty close and I think it will work).

All done. :D Now I need to figure out the Fuel Lines. :eek:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/MPTech/PC040008.jpg

[ksamson]

Looks great. I like your layout. I am in the process of collecting all of my parts. I have callipers, master cylinder, rotors, pads, fluid, pedal box. I will order my kit July 2013. My goal is to have all of the parts and begin the build in July. Can you give me some tips on the brake project. What kid of brake bending tool would you recommend? I am planning on going with a manual brake system. Your thoughts?

[CDXXVII]

Beautiful work.
The routing is great. I was dreading having to deal with the round cross member. Now I don't have to.

Thanks for sharing

[MPTech]

ksamson, good luck on your build. I took a similar approach. Planned and saved for 2 years and collected most of the parts prior to ordering my kit.

Do some searches on the other site (more history) and I'd suggest PS & PB. After driving my friend's '65 Mustang with standard brakes and a friend's FF5 Roadster, and the brakes scared me a bit. I'm sure they'll stop the car, but I prefer not to stand on them that hard. Besides, I might let someone else drive it and I don't want them to find out the hard way.

Here's my PB topic and info:
Power (Boosted) Brakes, need some help with components (http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-factory-five-roadsters/273709-power-boosted-brakes-need-some-help-components.html)

It was a little more work, but I think it will be worth it.

[skullandbones]

Nicely done. There must be thousands of ways to do it. I don't think I have seen two exactly the same. See you later. WEK.

[MPTech]

ksamson and Lmmargheritis,

We ran the line at about 11:00 (position, not time) across the tube cross-brace, so it wouldn't interfere with the battery box and wasn't directly on top of the cross-brace.

I'm really happy with the way they turned out and couldn't have done them without Rich's help! (He actually did 90% of the bending on the lines we did together, but he taught me well enough to tackle the last 2 on my own!).
Using the line bending tool is tricky, my advice to to practice and triple check your work. Paul gave us a good tip, to back off where you want the line to bend by 5/8 of an inch. And another piece of advise is it's 7/8 if you are bending on the live side as opposed to the dead side.

[Lynnhowlyn]

Nicely done. I'm taking notes ...

BTW - what specific bending tool did you use? Any others that you considered and opt'd to NOT use?

Assumption is that you used the FFR supplied brakes lines ...

Thanks

Lynn

[QSL]

clean job. You should be proud!!

[Gale K]

Not to answer MP's question, but I used a hand tubing bender from Summit Racing for both the brake and fuel lines. It worked well. Just watched the radiuses, and, along with a little practice, I was able to put the lines where I wanted them to go.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Nice work Mark (and Rich ;))!

The statement about no two being exactly the same is spot on.

Carry on,
Jeff

[AZPete]

Very nicely done guys!

For those looking here for hints, I made each line from coat hanger wire first and then bent the tubing to fit the wire. That saved a lot of naughty words.
Pete

[EBarnes]

Someone had suggested coat hangers, then another suggested buying bare copper wire at Home Depot/Lowes. That worked very well for me, particularly across the front.

My bender was cheap, but worked fine. I've heard the flaring tool is where you should get a quality tool. I bought pre-flared line (various lengths) at NAPA. THAT was easy!

[emac]

Nice work, thanks for the photos. I am going to run my rear lines tonight and was thinking about doing it a very similar way, but I like your way better.

[3kcarbon]

I dreaded doing the lines about as bad as starting the wiring. Turns out the lines were no where as hard to do as I feared. I actually enjoyed it to some extent.