Does any one know were to get plain old silver (zinc coated I think?) brake line or hydraulic tubing. All I can find in my area is the ugly green coated stuff. Has any one tried to remove the coating? Upon doing a search I understand it is "baked" on. Thanks for any info, and I did a search.
I haven't tried removing the coating entirely, but sometimes you have to on the ends because it makes the fittings bind up.
O'Reilley's has it. So should everyone else. I've never seen it coated green. Well, not around here, anyway.
I would think if you pulled off all the green stuff they would rust and could blow out. I bet they are not zinc coated under the green coating.
It will come off on a bench grinder with a wire wheel but as stated above it will rust. I have used sand paper also but it takes a while. I just bought some 5/16 for some fuel line and all I could get was green and it came from Napa. It's just some protective coating some genius came up with. Yep it sure is ugly.
Carquest auto parts store sell it in plain and Napa also I have used silver VHT caliper paint works good just scuff with a scotch bright pad
Be careful about wire brushing or sanding on brake line. Any metal removed or surface defects created will weaken the tube. At least some lines are made by winding multiple thicknesses of copper coated steel onto a mandrel then fusing them together using copper brazing. That means damage to the thin layer has even more effect than if the tube was a solid piece.
About the only way I've seen plain line is a coil of usually 25 Ft. I understand its eaiser to flare,than the coated line,especially if you have have to shorten and reflare.
Last time I needed some line, I could not find silver line at my first two stops. When I did find it, I bought enough lengths of it to do several cars. Also picked up a few more lengths later when getting other stuff. Don't like the appearance of the green stuff and hopefully I won't ever have to use it on a hot rod.
just saw the green stuff for the first time 2 days ago, the shop I was in showed me it won't kink. he bent it to a 90 ans straighened it again. he did say you need to wire wheels the ebds if you want to flare it. it just slips thru the flaring tool like teflon
Royal Brass and Hose sells it in 25' coils in a few sizes. It's used in some hydraulic applications. They may have a location near you. A local ag dealer may be using RBH as a warehouse source for some of their hose and accesories, so would be worth asking too.
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