• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Bending brake lines.

Share this page

vping

vping

Yoda
Silver
Country flag
Offline
Recieved my new brake lines & I purchased a hand bender. I need to reform my Brake & clutch MC lines.

Calling all tips!

I've got the jist of it but, not how the measuring part works. Also do you start at both ends or just 1? What happens if you are just a little bit off at each bend and wind up with too much or too little in the end? Small increments add up to big errors.
 
I always tried to carefully remove the old line eithe trying not to bend it, or taking careful note where I had to bend, or un-bend it. Then, starting at one end carefully match the new line to the old while it's out on the floor. Sometimes it even helps to start taping the two togeather after you have the first few bends, but sometimes that can get in the way of the tubing bender.
If you bought the Aromec alloy lines, you'll find they bend very easily. most curves can be done carefully by hand, without a tool, but the tool is good insurance.
If you wind up with a little too much, just take a look back over the line and see where you can tighten up some of the curves to shorten the whole thing, or do the opposite if you come out a little short.
Best of luck
 
If you don't have the originals to go by, you can bend some stiff wire (coathanger wire or maybe home wiring grounding cable?) into the shapes you need, and then follow it like Banjo says about following the originals.
 
Best tool I found for bending bundy pipe is a "Ridgid" model # 456. "Tribender."
 
I did the clutch line on Sunday and it looks just as good. Will post a pic later.
 
Looking good, come on down and do mine. I need to do em all.
 
Still need to post that pic but I learned myself a little trick. I put the bending tool around the original pipe and marked the 0Âş. I then drew a line along the pipe lineally in the direction I needed to bend.

The new piping from Moss is SS and in a coil. Both ends are done already so you need to straighten this out by hand.

I lined up the new pipe with the existing & transposed my marks.

Bend and your done. I little hand tweeking is needed but not much. I still need to get them in the car & see how well I did, but I feel pretty good about it.

Seeing is that jlaird needs lines, maybe there is a business in this somewhere. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif

I better start collecting original lines as templates. KIDDING!

J, if I was near ya, I'd be more than please to lend a hand.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Seeing is that jlaird needs lines, maybe there is a business in this somewhere. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif

I better start collecting original lines as templates. KIDDING!



[/ QUOTE ]

That business model is already spoken for: www.classictube.come

These folks sell CNC prebent tubing that is an exact duplicate of the original. I bought a set for my B and they fit perfectly.
 
Seems I looked at them but they knew nothing about Bugeyes?
 
Raw Bundy, a bender, a double flare tool and patience! These lumps were built in just that manner when new. Some things are "subject to change without notice" and others are infinitely renewable. LBC's are largely in the latter category, IMO.

...I wonder if a Lotus Elan will fit into the kiln of the crematorium... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jester.gif
 
vping, is that your bender? What do you intend to do with it when this project is complete? Rent, sell, loan?
 
I've seen them on ebay for about $10 plus shipping. Tip tools sells it for $15 plus shipping. I bought this one at sears for $20 cause I could not wait & had a $50 GC.
I usually keep my tools becuase I will forever wrench. Been in my blood since I was 10. Nobody else in my family wrenches and I don't know where I get it from. Trying to pass it on to my kids. Slowly but surely.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I usually keep my tools becuase I will forever wrench. Been in my blood since I was 10.

[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif Except, I can remember tearing ... lemme rephrase... disassembling stuff, such as alarm clocks, as young as 6 or 7. I couldn't get it back together at that age, but it was fun to disassemble stuff /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif Me pappy was ex-Air Force turned Civil Service mechanic and welder. I remember helping him replace the head gasket on his Mazda B2000 when I was in 4th grade. Then I did my first solo head gasket change on a 1980 Dodge Charger 2.2 in High School /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif So, I guess that's where I get my knack for turnin' wrenches /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Same here. I always had the knack to repiar stuff. Found out early on that just taking stuff apart and putting back together fixes the problem. I was always good with tools and had a good idea of how stuff worked. I see it in me son. Inquistive I super smart. Just does not put things back together as he likes the parts and wants to put them together kinda artsy.
 
I was taking stuff apart at 3-4 years old... But I wish I had most of it now... Marx electric trains, Lot's of other Marx toys... My parents worked at the toy plant before it closed and I recieved stuff during that time that would buy me a house now if sold to collectors.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I was taking stuff apart at 3-4 years old... But I wish I had most of it now... Marx electric trains, Lot's of other Marx toys... My parents worked at the toy plant before it closed and I recieved stuff during that time that would buy me a house now if sold to collectors.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cool! I've still got dad's Marx train set that he got on Christmas 1947. Every christmas it runs around the tree. Still works like a champ. Nothing quite like the smell of hot oil and ozone from a Marx train. It's every bit as distinctive as the smell of a LBC.

(and trains and slot-cars were the things I first wrenched on by myself and actually kept running - Lots of time helping the old man wrench on LBCs was the training ground)
 
Back
Top