Probably two more days under the hood

Today I put aside the Autozone tube bender and pulled out the cheaper Harbor Freight bender. Within minutes - literally I had bent a piece of tubing to exactly the shape I had failed on multiple times yesterday to do using the Autozone tool.

The goal today was to do the two small pieces of tube that go from the 45 degree bracket bolted to the chassis to the block on the chassis leading to the line that loops around underneath the radiator and turbo intercooler. Looking at the line that goes underneath, it looks very daunting, almost as if I'll have to become some kind of monkey to be able to install it!

So, both sides at the front now have brand new flexible brake lines to the wheels and brand new solid lines with brand new coil armor.

Making the solid lines was pretty easy using the Harbor Freight tool. It was just a case of bending the tube where the other tube was bent and trimming to length. As I had yet to put the flare on the other end, the unflared line was left 1/4 an inch longer. That allowed enough extra to create the flare.

Having flared and armored the line, I have to say it looks pretty good. It fitted easily in place and screwed in nicely. The trick to making brake lines play nicely is to put a tiny bit of grease behind the flare. Just a pinhead worth of grease is sufficient to lubricate the nut while also providing anti-rust protection for the scuffed area that was held by the flaring tool

For the flaring tool, after the debacle of the Autozone tool (does Autozone sell anything that actually works), the O'Reilly's tool came up trumps. It does a really nice job of the flare. In fact it's not possible to tell a difference between the flare on the tubes as they arrive and the flare I made.

It was a pretty simple matter. As there's no vice here I just used a G Clamp to fasten my flaring tool to the bench I welded together a few years ago. Incidentally, people online looked at photos of the bench I'd made and cried that it would fall apart and that the welds are worthless. Well, it has stood up to 250lbs weight and years of use and abuse with no degradation.

So, making the brake lines was pretty straightforward. I didn't want to dive in and do too much because that just tempts fate. Thinking about that front line, It probably only has a couple of fastenings under the radiator and then goes straight to the chassis connections. I bet it just lifts down and forward in one piece. That's a job for tomorrow perhaps. 

What I'm doing right now is the front brake lines. I want to make sure I get them right before I work on the back brakes. I still need to look at the brake pistons. I have no idea how those work or how I maintain those. That's a job for another day however. The goal is to replace all the brake lines. Those I have replaced so far (bar the one that exploded) have all looked pretty decent. I'm pretty sure the little shop of horrors will be at the back because those connections look very rusty.

The one brake line that will be challenging is the curved line over the differential. I have a feeling that won't be curved but more hexagonal. Keeping it simple never hurt. None of the brake line at the back seems to be armored. That will change. Every line I install will have armor even if there have to be gaps in the armor where I fasten the line to the chassis.

Meanwhile the wonderful Rustoleum elastometric paint is peeling off the roof. I can see great hunks of it blowing in the breeze. That's despite the fact the original paint I put on is Rustoleum and that's holding on well. I even washed the roof with an industrial cleaner. This is the problem with Rustoleum - it doesn't matter how good your surface preparation is, it doesn't hold on consistently. Sadly, they're about the only game in town.