Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:06:03 -0800
Reply-To: John Anderson <wvukidsdoc@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Anderson <wvukidsdoc@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: brake lines and hoses?
In-Reply-To: <11c79cda.e7577.134c78854ab.Webtop.44@charter.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Whoa, whoa, don't go with the poly shit...
Really, I didn't follow this until now, but... The poly gets scratched and the mild steel rusts instantly if you are in any salt, if you aren't probably fine sort of... To me it is a bear to flare by hand without a hydraulic tool because it often slips in the die. Galvanized is better, if you scratch, a little cold galv touchup will last for years, but cupro-nickel is optimal (for many reasons.) Proper fittings for same available here:
http://www.austinhealeywood.com/brakelines.html
A really good guy to deal with, he has M10 stuff for Porsche which is perfect for VW of any years, sells fittings and line seperately. You can do a little better than his prices if you look, but I've bought 2 sets from him (Triumph and for '69 SC) and they were wonderful.
Now even a $27 ISO flare from HF or Amazon will do, but there is a trick. You need to ideally cross clamp the die with a good C clamp (or I use a Starret pin vice) very near the location where the line goes through, just adjacent but still able to operate the yoke. That will prevent slippage inhernet with the cheaper (not well hardened) dies. Frankly though for hand forming double or ISO, even a good ole Blue Point set from 30+ years ago I have still slips half the time with poly coated if I don't cross clamp it and just rely on the wing nuts. If you do calmp it, perfect flares every time, adds about 30 seconds to each operation. And the cupro-nickel is wonderful to work, bends super tight, flares easy.
John
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From: Mike B. mbucchino@CHARTER.NET
Thanks, John, Jason, David and Scott. This is the info I was looking for.
I found Dennis' comment to be pretty snarky-sounding, having a bad day, fella?
I did find the poly-coated 25' coil at NAPA for $23 (on sale right now) and the ends are 1.69 each, but the top quality ISO flare tool they sell is $97 with lifetime warr. I have done complete Beetle brake lines for years, and those kits are cheap and readily available, but I have very little experience doing Vanagon lines. No kits available, no parts vendors selling so much as a single hard line, no descriptions online (with the
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