Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Bending Brake Lines (Part 1)

I've spent the evenings this week working on bending brake lines for the Mustang. I decided to test fit, cut and bend the lines before painting the engine bay. This will limit the potential for scratching up the paint later. Additionally, I've not heard back from Danny regarding the welding so I'm running out of things to complete until I get the engine bay welding and paint done.

I would have purchased prebent lines from a Mustang parts vendor but they would not work on my application. I'm using '70 spindles, a reproduction Ford proportioning valve, and a '75 Maverick master cylinder. While this might sound like piecing together random parts they were each selected for a particular reason. However, the connections and lengths no longer match the originals which require I custom build brake lines.

I've never done any brake line work before. I spend the first night test bending a few test lines from metal coat hangers. I the moved on to working with the tube bender on a piece of scrap line I purchased. I succcessfully made one of the lines Tuesday night. I finshed the second line tonight after renting a flaring tool from NAPA at lunch. While it does not look like much, bending the lines and making sure they fit and look well is a task. I pleased so far but have much more brake line work to go.


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