Stopping 4,000 pounds of '60s technology, with 21st century technology.

New front brakes and -almost- all new hardware for the rear brakes. So I think the brake lines need to replaced as well. The brake line is a copper-nickel line, easy to bent and does not corrode. Looks like steel but has a sheen of copper. The store did not have enough copper-nickel brake line in stock, so I will use a copper line between the front and rear brakes. With a lot of anti corrosion paint on it.

Let's bent something

Mouseover the images for a larger image.

I started with the most difficult brake line, the front right. The line is going from the master cylinder via the firewall (behind the engine) to the right side disc brake. I saved all the, spring like, brake line protectors. So here you see a new brake line with the protecting spring sleave. The nut is taped up, so it doesn't slide down during the flaring proces. I must say, working with this rather primitive flaring tool is a bitch. But it is cheap, so I stop moaning ;-).

Just done making the flare. The brake line is now connected with the right front disc brake. And the protective spring sleave is down the line, with just enough room for the flare nut wrench.

This is the other side of the same brake line as above. The brake line is connected to a proportional valve. Actually, the proportional valve doesn't do anything to the front brakes, except splitting the single brake line, coming from the master cylinder, in two separate lines. So both front brakes have their own brake line. This way you can discard the OEM distribution block.

This is the left front brake line. Right before installing.

Left front brake line connected to the flex line.

And the other side of the line, connected to the propotional valve.

Removed the front to rear brake line.

The brake line for the rear brakes (left). Connected to the proportional valve. This brake line is the only one which will be adjusted by the proportional valve.

All the brake lines on the output side of the prop. valve are connected.

I cleaned the rear axle vent & brake line tee. It came off very easily. The hollow bolt was not broken though. And I cleaned the axle surface as well and bolted everything on again. With a new spring washer.

The first new brake line is for the left rear brake. Connected to the brake line tee.

This is the other side of the same line. Connected to a new wheel cylinder.

Back to the front. I still had to make the brake lines between master cylinder and proportional valve. There is only one thing to call this: freestyle bending. It is not nice to see, but functional. I had to keep the lines clear of all the brake line nuts. So you can fasten or loosen them, if necessary.

Back to the rear brake line again. As you probably understand, this piece of brake line is rather difficult to make. Because the car is on jack stands, the exhaust and rear axle are blocking a smooth installation. The hard line goes to the metal strip with the round star shape hole in it. From there on, a flexible rubber hose goes to the distribution block on the rear axle.

This is the brake line, partially bent to shape. It had to come off, so I could install the protective brake line spring wrap. This is a reused spring wrap from the old brake line. When it's installed again, the final bending is done.

The above mentioned brake line installed. Again some free style bending. The hard line is connected to the flexible hose.

The flexible hose itself.

And this is the other side of the brake line. The brake line which is going from the proportional valve to the rear brakes was too short. So I had to connect two lines together with a special brake line coupler.

The last brake line is installed. This line is going from the brake line tee to the rear right brake cylinder. I reused two old valve cover bolts, because I broke one of the new bolts. The valve cover bolts are longer than the original wheel cylinder bolts, which means there are more threads used to hold the wheel cylinder in place. Because of that I also used these bolts on the left wheel cylinder. To finish it up, I put a drop of Loctite on the threads. Because the washers on the bolts are not of the locking type.

All the brake line tubing is new now. Including the flexible hoses at the front brakes and the flex hose at the rear axle. This means this job is finished.
You can read more on the Brakes page.