I'm going to fit a brake bias valve & remove the ABS module. So my idea is to replace the oem copper brake pipes for stainless steel ones, as they look much better going through the car. But I can't seem to find anywhere that supplies the pipes, does anyone know where I could get some from?
Why don't you just paint em!! I painted all mine silver with good paint so it doesn't flake off too easily.
Dave, Just to confirm are you looking to replace the original brake lines with stainless solid as in not the braided flexi lines? If you are I suspect these may be a bit of a hard one to find. as stainless steel is quite a hard material to flare the ends of and bend to fit. I would guess that some one like http://www.pirtek.co.uk/ could help make you up flexi lines with the correct ends?
it can't be that difficult to do this as i know a lot of the guys in the us use stainless lines on there cars for brakes and other bits i have seen some use the AN fittings and having bosses welding in etc
Yes aeroquip is fine front to back but it is expensive and fittings are expensive when you start adding up how many you need, plus it can look cluttered i.e. doesn't look as tidy as it could, stainless hardline is indeed the muts nuts and a very nice way to do things but it is a challenge to bend and more expensive than copper. Copper when done properly looks awesome and can be hidden very easily, plus its cheap and the fittings are cheap. i use a plastic overbraid that i use for all my wiring to braid over the copper after making the pipes it makes it look like black braided line and very tidy will post pictures when i have finished my engine bay. For a track car i would suggest copper, bend carefully and routed correctly this will look tidy and can easily be painted or braided.
this is the only place i can find in the uk that seems to stainless tubing http://www.metals4u.co.uk/Stainless-Steel-Tube/85/products.asp they quote everything as outer diameter which isn't helpful as i don't know what standard brake lines measure and they aren't cheap i don't think plus on top of this your going to to need a sykes pickavant flaring tool to flare stainless this is all the info i have found in the last 30-40mins online, i need find plenty of us companies which sucks as shipping/import tax etc would kill the cost of bringing the stuff over
Try Think Auto? http://www.thinkauto.com/ I don't know if they do this as an official product line, but they do make up custom hoses and pipework in a range of materials. TBH, as it's a track car, I'd be tempted to do the whole lot in braided and run the lines inside. It's flexible and easy to work with/route through the car, and you can fit and forget. It does get expensive if you do it all through bulkhead fittings and so on, but to be honest I'd be looking to use rubber grommets and a small hole.
That is really quite cool if a bit bling if they would work? I picked up one of these Sykes Pickavant brake flaring tools they are very good, and I had a few pipes to make up on a mates mk2 and my own one too. The one condition is that you need to have a well secured vice, then you can make up pipes of a high quality very quickly. The other vital bit of kit for this project would be a proper pipe bender as I would think the stainless steel would kink very easily, I got a cheap on off Amazon and it has worked all ok.
I picked up a 2nd hand Snap-On brake flaring kit for 20 that seems to do steel pipes OK, although they're bloomin' stiff. Not sure if it would do Stainless - might depend on the specific material and hardness.
I'm looking at replacing the whole lot for SS hardlines. The idea is to remove the copper lines & abs then take a hardline pipe for the rear inside the car to a brake bias valve then t piece off to the rear down through the holes used for the ABS sensor wire. I have found a few web sites; Alloy ones from Earl Performance SS Hardlines Demon Tweeks Langy's Rod Shop Pop Browns Rod Shop
Only thing that puts me off braided is that it's not as solid as a hardline, know it will take years to have any flex but I rather do it once & forget about them
Mmm.. like the sounds of this idea Just a quick thought when buying bolts i was told ss is quite a soft material, would it not be prone to spliting? even more so with the alloy stuff from earls?
OSE, where my car is as a Astra Touring Car up there & its running stainless steel pipes, that's what's given me the idea. Also I just thought the machines in work with me use silver hardline pipes & they run 100 bar of hydraulic pressure. Think I'll ask my maintenance foreman tomorrow to see who the supplier is.
We use a lot of stainless at work, search swagelock. These use a 2 piece 'ferrule' that clamps onto the pipe. Its very very good, but not cheap
sure will do i will be doing them next week, all my looms is braided as well so it all matches, the place to get the ss from or the guys to talk to are atec there site is http://www.atecautotechnic.co.uk they do the nicest fittings in the world and its what they use on wrc cars, fittings are not cheap around 50 quid a go for the posh ones, but they also do a very trick process where you can get braid crimped onto the end instead of using a fitting, looks supper clean but its a lot of work with the stainless to get to that stage, personally for the home diy copper can be done extremely nicely! give them a ring they are very helpful chaps indeed!
found a bit more info on this i got in touch with http://www.earls.co.uk/earls/index.html and spoke to a guy who works in technical sales, he told me they make up stainless steel brake lines with the fittings etc to your specs but there is a slight catch, you have to go to Silverstone (the racetack as the guy that makes them is based there) Going to the guy is the best and easiest way to have them done, basically you call them arrange a time/date and turn up with your existing brake lines to use as a sample and he will remake them while you wait, you can also chose the type of fittngs you want etc depending on your spec of brakes etc you wish to use. the guy making the lines does this for a living for the professional race teams around the country as well which gave me sense of ease knowing he's not just some guy in a shed with no experience they aren't cheap either it works out at 17 a meter in stainless not including your choice of ends, and they will split the cost if you only use 0.2 of a meter for example. its some food for thought i did look at making them myself but cost of tools etc and trying to find the stainless pipes was a big issue i found
