Stainless Steel Brake linrs from Inline Tube - Good, Bad, Ugly

pseftoncomcastnet

Recently I learned some hard and reasonably expensive lessons from purchasing stainless steel brake lines for my 1951 Commodore from Inline Tube.

Lesson 1: Follow the advice you get on the HET Forum.

There’re no problems that you guys haven’t overcome and your solutions have been vetted by the real world. It would have been much cheaper and easier to form new lines from cunifer, as many of you advised.

Lesson 2:  Never believe advertising  

Inline Tube claims that their brakes lines can be attached to the car without tweaking and re-bending. They also state that they have templates to replicate OEM lines without the originals. Because it would have been difficult and expensive to remove and ship the original lines to Detroit without bending them out of their original configurations, I ordered lines from their templates. The lines I received required a substantial amount of re-bending, often near their ends, where stainless lines are especially difficult to work.

Lesson 3: Customer satisfaction ratings don’t necessarily apply to individual cases.

To set the stage, I had a lesser early problem caused by my own ignorance. Each original stepdown rear wheel line screwed into a seat in a brass fitting, which in turn was threaded into the wheel cylinder’s inlet port.  A modern replacement cylinder has this seat machined into the inlet port, which eliminates the brass fitting and thus renders the original line too short by its length. After discovering this, I paid Inline to make longer rear wheel lines, which they did promptly. No complaint on this one!

However, after I got the rear lines and new master cylinder in, I found that my new stainless front lines were the wrong lengths and had even worse angle mismatches. After much struggle and a consultation with a friend who’s a mechanical engineer and accomplished Buick restorer, I concluded that they could not be persuaded to fit the car. I called Inline, who advised me to send my original lines after all. Shipping the lines in a box that preserved their configurations cost me $65 one way.

Inline then charged me to make replacement lines as well as for return shipping. When I protested, they announced that, because I had reported the problem in September after buying the lines in December I had waited too long to complain, and claimed that I was having exactly the same problem as with the rear lines. I pointed out that this front wheel problem was completely different, as it involved replacements that failed to match originals, not new parts that actually matched originals that unfortunately had been rendered obsolete by design changes. I added that I had reported the problem almost as soon as it was detected, and that their lines would not have fit any better in December than they did in September.  However, it was like talking to the wall.

I paid grudgingly, and later found that the second new line to the driver’s side front wheel lacked the important line-end bends of the original which I had sent as a model. The line went to the machine shop for $30 worth of tweaking.

Moral:  To give Inline credit, after investing my time, travail, and expense, the new lines look great. However, I think that Inline didn’t live up to its claims and that its customer service policies are confusing and unfair. In the end, I had probably a 100% cost overrun and wasted more than a month in transit time.

I would never do this again.    

DavidC

Sorry you had so much trouble.  I bought a set for a 53 HH Sedan, and although they required some tweaking as well, I believe they saved me a bunch of time over bending all my own.  Admittedly I cannot report on the fitting of the front pieces to the MC as I needed to rebend and flare several for a replacement MC.

Geoff

Which goes to prove the section of Murphy's law that states " Interchangeable parts exhibit fundamental  differences", and it's corollary  " Parts guaranteed to fit fit, won't".  Plus "any wire, shaft, or cable  cut to length to length will be too short", and the final one "If you fiddle with a thing long enough it will ultimately break".  

bob ward

Another moral to the story. Buy a tune bender, tube cutter and a double flaring tool.

50C8DAN

I agree with with Bob. I have bought lines from Inline for my 2003 GMC truck and '67 Firebird, but when it comes to my Hudson and Studebakers I have always bent my own SS brake and fuel lines. I think folks over estimate the difficulty of bending and flaring. I did finally buy a double flare tool for stainless that works great and does perfect factory type double flares. The typical flaring tool makes it really tough to flare stainless well and I did a lot of leaky flares with my original one. For bending stainless I use a tube bender for tight bends and a support post in my garage for the more generous bends. I also recommend buying straight lengths and not coils when using stainless, it is really tough (impossible) to get ss to flatten out perfectly straight after being bent. I get mine from a local scientific and engineering supply vendor and buy 20 Ft lengths and cut them into 10 foot sections before I loading my truck. I also use Swage or Parker fittings my union and carb/filter attaches, i.e. non-double flare attachments.

pseftoncomcastnet

I didn't want to seem too negative about Inline.

My thought is that they must do well on more common models like Corvettes or vintage GTOs where they have fine-tuned their processes over the course of filling many orders.  My front wheel line problems might simply have been the result of someone someone running the wrong software or mixing up orders. I was disappointed that the problem had to be corrected at my expense.  

A question for Dan - what make of flaring tool do you use for stainless? I've heard that not all the widely-available tools work that well. 

Peter S.

50C8DAN

The standard off the shelf flaring tool as noted does not work well with stainless due to the hardness.  You need something that has a hydraulic action and can apply more force to the tube.  I got mine off a guy in the UK about 10 years ago.  I see they still make these http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sykes-Pickavant-02725000-Flaremaster-2-Brake-Flaring-Tool-/321488972180?hash=item4ada3c6994:m:mFoHmiq9StFcKIJnRAzQr7w, but you need to now buy the Stainless upgrade.  There are a number of different types on the market, with many of the sets that can do all kinds of tubing going for between $200 and $300.  The one I got was about $150 at the time.  They are indeed not cheap but really do a great job.

Kdancy

This  is the  one I've used for 5-6 years. stainless tubing does wear the dies out but it has liftime warranty so i just get new replacements.  mine is a blue point, made by mastercool. same kit. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mastercool-71475PRC-Universal-Hydraulic-Flaring-Tool-Set-Free-Tube-Cutter-/271639231901?hash=item3f3ef5bd9d:g:nVcAAOSw-nZTqyfD&item=271639231901&vxp=mtr

I will say i like the new easy bend tubing a lot better and am using it now 

pseftoncomcastnet

Thanks for the thoughtful suggestions. These are nice sets, but I don't have that many cars to amortize the cost over, but it sure would relieve a headache!

Uncle Josh

Just buy standard brake line from the parts store.  If they're a little long just put wiggles or loops in them.  Buy an inexpensive tubing bender.  If they're too short, get a tubing stretcher.

Frankvintagefullflowcom

Well.......now my tubing stretcher is for sale, cheap. Who'd have known? A real money- saver, too,  since one could buy a 60" piece and do a whole car with it.

F

pseftoncomcastnet

I finally went the cunifer route on my remaining line, the shortest pipe in the system. It connects the MC to the junction block that sits on the frame behind the steering box and connects to the lines to the the front wheels. Despite its short length, it has some complicated curves to miss the rod for the Emergency / Saf-T- brake feature, hit a mounting point on the frame, and then intercept the junction block at a slightly up-thrust angle. The Inline Tube stainless pipe lacked the critical bends at the end and I went crazy trying to reproduce them. The cunifer was easy to double flare and bend, and I added a small bit of length to avoid violating the air space between the floor access hole and the MC cap. 

So my system will have SS lines with the cunifer section as its weakest link.

 

iceblade10

How did you like the cunifer?  I will need to re-plumb my fuel lines under the hood when I finish installing a Twin-H setup.  I've never done any kind of line work like this before, so cunifer seems attractive due to being supposedly easy to work with.  Plus corrosion resistance.  Seems worth the extra money to me.

Per

Since I do not use my antique cars when there is salt on the road, in fact not too often when it rains, I have used ordinary brake tubing, which is easy to work with.  Why is there so much interest in making stainless brake lines?

Jay_G

They are shiny.....

Jay

Per

I guess I should have sprayed them with wheel paint ...

Uncle Josh

Ken, my tubing stretcher hangs on the garage wall right beside the flukemizer

iceblade10

Do you have a left-handed smoke-shifter I can borrow?

SuperDave

Last time I saw mine it was on the shelf behind the bottle of smoke I kept from the last Lucas generator failure..