Technical Flaring tool for brake and fuel lines.

Good tools are always a great investment. They do end up paying for themselves.

 

Never skimp on brakes, steering or suspension. Your life and that of others depends on you making the right decisions.

 

I have used the KD tool and OTC and fought every flare. Bought the Eastwood and love it. You won't regret it!

 

I used the KD and Imperial for years. Then I tried using one on stainless tubing (yes, the correct SS for doing double flares!). Had a very hard time with them. Got a Ridgid, and it handled it as well as mild steel.
I still lust for the MasterCool Hydraulic one, though!

 

Well, I was considering the Imperial and KD but I went ahead and bought the Cal-Van.
My reasoning:
I like the design of the Cal-Van. Everything screws down and locks into place.
It includes dies for metric and bubble flares. I do a lot of 2.3 Ford stuff - metric.
Portable. You can actually flare lines on the car. Don't know if I ever will but that's a nice feature.

Had to get it off Ebay. Amazon won't ship to California. Says it's Non-CARB compliant! HTH can a tool not meet the requirements of the California Air Resources Board!! Maybe the plastic carrying case emits toxic gases that are harmful to the ozone layer..........only over California!

Anyhow, I'll get it in a week. Excited to try it out on the fuel lines first then brake lines. Thanks for all the responses!
https://www.amazon.com/Cal-Van-Tool...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5NC3P7X048YV6EAJDS3W

 

Congrats on your purchase and don't forget to leave the tube nuts off!

 

Couple things I've learned after my FIRST experience with brake lines. Did my own disc brake upgrade sans a kit on one of my '57 Chevys...

1) Shop around for pre-made lines. Lengths vary by mfg., so be prepaired to takes notes as WHO has what lengths. Might reduce the number of flairs you'll need to make.
2) Single strand wire cut-offs make GREAT template material for laying out lines, then bending off the car. Look for them in the electrical dept. at Lowe's or H-D.
3) Take the TIME to file FLUSH the tube after cutting and DEBURR inside and out. Using the flairing clamp helps to check that the end is TRUE as can be.
4) Use valve lapping paste IF the tube wants to move inside the clamp during a flair. Worked like a charm on the old, worn clamp I had to work with! Replacing the wing nuts with standard nuts and tightening with a wrench also helped.
5) Look for a WEATHERHEAD tubing bender on ebay, maybe amazon . LOVED the small-radius (around 1") bends that little bugger made! Borrowed a club buddy's, later bought it at his estate sale. PM me if you can't find one to buy or borrow...
6) I needed to make a slightly curved bend to go across the crossmember. Trash cans were too small to bend across. THEN I noticed the rear fender of my '53 Chevy truck... PERFECT, with a lil' tweeking on the car!
7) PRACTICE making as many flairs as you NEED to - until your flair looks as GOOD as a factory flair!

Hope this helps, Good Luck and Merry Christmas! -Tim

 

I use a Mastercool flaring tool set. It is one the best tool investments ever for me. I'm always disappointed when I'm done making lines, because it is such a pleasure to use, I want to do more.
don

 

I use the Eastwood one and ever time I do I'm glad I have it. Works great

 

Been using the Mastercool set for years. Would hate to go back to the old days of the clamp and crank method.

 

Santa ask me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her Eastwood.

 

I bought an Eastwood and never looked back. Yes it cost some solid money, but I'm putting my kids (or someones kids) in the cars I work on and driving in traffic. They had better stop. The Eastwood is almost push the button/get a flare easy to use. I've built a few cars worth of lines now and have had zero issues with any flare. Easy peasy.

The Eastwood does not tell you when you leave off the tube nuts.

 

Master cool with all adapters not cheep around $300 but once you use one you will fall in love with it
had mine 3 years now and use it regular
the hydraulic pump make doing line on car a breeze

 

Eastwood has this also...http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-on-car-flaring-tool-for-3-16-tubing.html?reltype=2&parent_id=2834

 

I used the Imperial flaring kit and it worked fine. Take your time and no problems. Built my 54 Chevy truck and used it for all the brake lines. I would buy it again.


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I have the Eastwood and it works great

 

The best part about the Eastwood it takes what used to be a pita and makes it fun, you
actually look forward to running lines. And when you screw up it takes all of 20 seconds to reflare the line.

 

The 1st flaring tool I bought was a cheap one too. It worked OK for the first few years, but became increasing difficult to get good flares. I just quit doing flares years ago. I think it now resides in that bottom tool drawer, or maybe I finally through it out. Gene