Doing your own crimping of A/C lines

[56hotrodred]

I have mocked up my Vintage Air heater/air conditioner and am now waiting on delivery of my fan shroud with dual 12 inch fans and also bought the extended length air drier kit.

I have also mounted the triangular firewall bulkhead connector. I choose the location I did after looking at as many pictures of what others have done and reading about what others have done.

Currently looking at the idea of crimping my own refrigerant cooling and heater hoses.

My question is:

Has anyone used the Vintage Air Refrigerant Cooling Crimping Tool?

I know it's about $250.00! So I was also wondering if there are any other crimping tools out there that might be a better deal.

By the way I did buy the Eastwood flaring tool and am more than happy with the results. I had previously bought the complete SS brake line kit from LMC and with my shortened frame I had to cut out about 2 1/2 inches. I practised twice on the other end of the piece I cut out and then flared the end I needed.

It was actually a double flared 37 degree flare. I did a bunch of research on this beforehand and in more places than I can remember they said that 37 degree stainless required only a single flare! But after looking closely it was clear that it was SS. Anyway after also reading about how hard it was to double flare SS the Eastwood flaring tool did a great job. It was also not cheap but I feel pretty confident that I can now flare for most jobs.

We will see however if it leaks down the road but a close visual inspection of the factory flare and mine, with my best glasses on, ... it looked really good.