Copper lines

All metals work-harden. Paperclips are steel - twist them back and forth until they snap. Same will happen with steel brake lines. If a line is properly supported, it will be fine.

Same holds true for brake lines as well. Copper will be fine if properly run and supported. Burst strength is actually quite high.

This is probably the best compromise for brakes. Easy to form (not as easy as copper, but much easier than steel), easy to flare, stronger than pure copper, and used by several OEMs (Volvo, for one), and even has German TUV approval (much stricter than DOT). You can polish it to look like copper.

 

That is exactly what I was mentioning when I said "house plumbing on a car".
It may hold up forever and it may not survive the first 200 mile trip up the freeway.

Yes steel lines can also flex and crack if they are not supported correctly. I just replaced one of those on a truck Friday on the trans cooler that had no suppport between the trans and the radiator.

vacuum lines, why not. They won't spray gas if they break or crack and you don't have to worry about the brakes going out. If one fails all that will happen is the engine runs a bit rough.

For a few years I worked as a mechanic on a dairy fixing what farmers and farm workers had cobbled together to get something going. That is where I pulled most of the copper lines off equipment and vehicles. After it had failed.

 

I wouldn't want anything soft in my brake lines, just because it's a pain to get it to seal. Whatever that black brake line stuff is they sell now I had one union that seemed sealed, pop a leak on a hard stop and I had to crawl under and crank on it some more. Apparently the high pressure (even after being bled) compressed things in the line enough to open it up and leak through the threads.

But copper aught to hold up to fuel pressure. I'd want to check out the burst rate and so on if I was using it for TPI, but for carbs and TBI it should be fine.

 

Thanks AstroZombie thats exactly what I am looking for.

It seems I opened up a can of worms with this subject its almost as if I had said RATROD. I'm not going to offer an opinion either way but I can tell you that the fuel line on my 35 Chevy is over 70 years old with out any signs of fatigue.

Thanks, Gary

 

Anybody who uses copper for anything in a car is a fool. I have copper fuel line and filler neck in the roadster...

 

I am fine with copper for everything except fuel & brake - especially brake. Fuel it's most likely not a problem, save for corrosion.

I use copper for vac & overflow on my bucket.