Who has bent thier own brake lines?

[CUSTOM/10]

I have bent all my own lines on my last few trucks and on a friends that was a plumbing nightmare! He had an air ride suspension control system, brake lines, fuel lines, trany lines and more. All were done in stainless steel tubing & fittings. I'll soon be doing my own again in all SS. You can buy all the supplies and tools needed from Summit Racing. They have SS tubing and they also have an alloy of copper / nickel that's easier to bend & flare than SS, but has much better corrosion resistance than plane steel. The SS that comes in coils is softer than the straight hard SS and can be flared, but I recommend a hydraulic flaring tool. SS can be tuff to double flare.

Now I have a back ground in HVAC so I have bent tubing most of my life, and actually enjoy making it look neat and clean. But most anyone can do it if they take their time and practice some beforehand. If your going to use SS you need good quality tools. Those double flaring disks on cheap sets break easily when doing SS. That's why I recommend a hydraulic flaring tool. Bending is easy once you get the hang of it. But make sure you have your fitting on the tube and on the correct side of the bend or your screwed. It's also easy to bend the tube in the wrong direction. So you need to mark the tube on the side indicating the way you want the bend to go. If you bend it the wrong way on your last bend *&$@ it's junk. So take your time and double check before bending it. You'll also need to learn different angles and how much tubing you will use for each angle or you'll miss your target.

It will be a little bit before I start bending my line, but when I do I'll try and post pictures, and some helpful hints.

Gary