Hand Bendable Brake Line!

Glad this thread got bumped. I am about to plumb the Dodge this week. I get most of my parts from NAPA (Mel's Auto) in Chandler so I'm sure they can get me a roll.

 

This stuff is no joke. I've been using it at work for close to a year now and its great. Can't comment on the corrosion resistance other than the lines are still green in the trucks I used it in.

 

Amazingly I saw this thread just *before* I'm about to do brake lines! Too bad I already bought new ones, but if I muff those I'm just going to see if I can get a roll of this stuff!

 

FWIW- I built a lite weight IMCA modified back when and plumbed it in aluminum. It bent and flared real easy but I'm not up to doing a street vehicle in it.

 

This past weekend I ran all the lines on my Willys with poly armour and it was a piece of cake. The person I bought it from said he has used it successfully with no rust issues whatsoever. Flaring is a breeze and with a little steel wool scuff job you can shoot it with silver krylon if you don,t like the green.

 

I wish I knew about this stuff before I ran lines as well. Next time though.

 

Skinned knuckles magazine had an article all about Cunifer brake lines in their october 07 issue.You can get a reprint from them for $2.75 at SK Publishing Po box 6983 Huntington Beach Ca 92615. Tell them you want number 375. If you have not read this mag you should they have many articles about restoration and repair of the old iron we love.

 

If anybody actually finds this stuff I'd like to hear where. Brake lines always seem to be totally disorganized at autozone or napa. I think I actually haveseen this stuff, but had no clue as to it's properties and no chance an autozoner did either.

 

Not to highjack, but if you have an old double roller timing chain crank gear that you're not gonna use, you can make a pretty slick 3/16" brake line bender. I welded a nut between one of the teeth on one side,and use a bolt to hold the line. I used an old crank bolt welded on an angle for a handle. It works mint.

 

Ok so I went to a different autozone than usual and got a section . It was like 3 or 4 bucks for 20" x 1/4" and I bent and rebent the h-e-double hockeysticks out of it and no kinks, and can still move the fittings down the entire length of the line. Amazing! I'll never use anything else again.

 

Any clue on the psi rating of the 3/8's line. If it's brake line obviously it's pretty high but the 3/8 is listed on the site as transmission and fuel lines. Thanks

 

Must be a soft material, wondering what the P.S.I is...

 

I just want it for fuel lines!

 

Gentlemen,
I apologize for not returning to answer questions sooner, but I'm in the midst of putting together a rather extensive and complicated business travel schedule and it's kind of eaten up my time lately. Let's see if I can answer everyone's questions, at least up to this point.

af2bs posted: just found this thread today, luckily in time to do my brake lines. thanks johnP for getting the info out to us. which product do you reccomend for the shade tree mechanics a**** us? also happy your companies products are made in the USA. Thanks much for asking. Depending on what your application is, the Poly Armour is excellent for everything UNLESS you are doing a restoration, in which case it will never p*** muster for appearance. Our standard BL double zinc coated brake lines have a very nice uniform silver coated finish and also have the same EZ Bend technology. If you are working on something to make it exactly back to OEM specs, then even our line won't be what you want unless you do a couple of things. OEM from about 1978 back was called "terne" coated line which in essence was a hot dipped galvanizing. This left a rather gobby, non-uniform, ugly, mottled finish because of the imprecise method of galvanizing. If you want to make our line look like this for a restoration, the best way is to take silver paint, don't shake it much, and kind of do the sloppiest job painting the lines you can. It will leave a spotty bumpy appearance, but it will look much more period correct.

D.R. Smith wrote: Skinned knuckles magazine had an article all about Cunifer brake lines in their october 07 issue.You can get a reprint from them for $2.75 at SK Publishing Po box 6983 Huntington Beach Ca 92615. Tell them you want number 375. If you have not read this mag you should they have many articles about restoration and repair of the old iron we love. We also offer a copper/nickel/iron brake tubing and we call it (unimaginatively enough) NiCopp. Personally, I don't care much to use this tubing because it is almost too soft. When bending a tighter radius with it, it tends to oval the shape of the line. Having done hundreds of brake jobs myself, and being a perfectionist as I am, I prefer the way, when bent in a radius, steel tubing maintains it's roundness, unless of course, you push it too far. NiCopp, Cunifer, and any other nickel/copper/iron line is virtually corrosion proof and it can be polished to a very pretty copper sheen, so if you are doing custom work, it can add a lot of looks. It's also an outstanding product for marine use, again, due to lack of corrosion (Not for BRAKES you goofs, I KNOW that boats don't have brakes but you can use it for fuel and exhaust water spray lines as well as oil cooler, hydraulic systems, and just about any other engine related fluid transfer). It's main drawback is that it is very expensive in comparison to steel.

<HR style="COLOR: #e5e5e5; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1> <!-- / icon and ***le --><!-- message -->lowburban writes: Any clue on the psi rating of the 3/8's line. If it's brake line obviously it's pretty high but the 3/8 is listed on the site as transmission and fuel lines. Thanks
Hotrod 1932 writes: Must be a soft material, wondering what the P.S.I is...
All of the lines that AGS manufactures-Poly Armour, Double Zinc coated steel, NiCopp-all meet DOT specs for burst pressure and operating specs. Here are the pressures for each:

Poly Armour Double Zinc NiCopp
3/16" 17900 psi 17900 psi 17000 psi
1/4" 12100 psi 12100 psi 11500 psi
5/16" 9200 psi 9200 psi N/A
3/8" 7400 psi 7400 psi N/A

At this point, we do have NiCopp in the 2 larger sizes, but not available to the public as yet. All of the line listed above also meets all of the following specs:

SAE J527b
SAE J1290
SAE J1650
ASTM A254
DIN 74234
ISO 4038
GM 123M

Sorry to be so long winded but hope this helps everyone. Don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of any help.

Best regards,
John Peirce

 

Great info, exactly what I was needing. I've got several projects coming up to plumb both brakes and air so I will definately be giving your stuff a try soon.

 

Hell...the gray line that you get at Auto Zone is easy as hell to bend by hand.

 

Back from the dead.

Anyone have any more info on this stuff? sounds ***s!!!

 

Just did my whole car in it...got it at my local NAPA, it pretty much kicked ***.