brake line flares

so im looking at the disc brake stuff im planning to use on my 64 el camino. using stock c5 corvette brakes up front, and a set of nissan 300zx twin turbo rear discs. also planning on a c4 corvette pbr aluminum master. anyway, the elky has good metal lines in it. look to have been replaced fairly recently, actually. this has your standard female flare. teh brake parts im planning on using all have the later GM bubble flare. same with teh 300zx stuff, which may be threaded metric at the caliper. hoses have a bubble flare, but unsure of the thread. im assuming metric.

what do i need to do to adapt? or would it be better to buy the tools to make the later flares? this will not be a track car (well, not planning on, but may wind up there anyway once in a while), but mostly a street/daily styl;e car. or truck. or trar....

anyway, what would you reccomend, and why? more specific is better.

michael

Most brake lines are 3/8" NF. If it uses the bubble flare, chances are it wants the corresponding thread. So what comes on the bubble flared pre-made lines is what you most likely need.

You can do bubble flares with a standard double flare tool, or buy the right tool. I bought a good tool for $100 and it has been amazing compared to the cheap crap that wont even hold the line.

ok, im a little lost by this, nohome. metal lines are standard 60's fare IFF flares. rubbers are 80's-90's fare bubble flares. i have no sections of metal lines for the bubbles. and how do you do bubbles with a standard flaring tool? cause that would be great. i would love to just re-do the ends of the current metal lines to mate up with the stock rubber hoses that go with the calipres, if at all possible, this would be the cheapest and easiest solution.

You will need a double flare tool.

you can probably get a brass adapter to go from the old-school SAE inverted flare to the appropriate bubble flare. go to NAPA and poke around. that's how I mated the 2007 S197 GT front caliper jounce hoses to the '68 mustang hard lines.

Check here: http://www.kore3.com/categories.php?cat=10 for flexible brake lines that will let you connect the Corvette calipers to your existing brake lines. Check with them on the Nissan calipers. I did this on my 67 El Camino with C5 front brakes and LS1 Camaro rears. Easy way to go, especially for me since me and flaring don't always get along.

i dont mind making custom lines when i have to, but this time i dont have to. and i did look at core3. but 160 is a little steep for what im doing. reaon im using what im using, is ill have a total of about 100 in a 4 wheel disc, aluminum caliper, big rotor swap.

i also already have rubber lines in good shape for the calipers i have. hence the idea for adapters or re-flares.

anyone have good info on flaring the bubble, and the tubing nut for it? and ill check napa in mt pleasant on my way home from work tonight. ill see what theyve got for thiose kinds of fittings.

Flaring is very easy, I use a $30 OTC bubble flare kit off amazon, works great. For nuts, just take in your bits to napa and they will hook you up.

Just get the Master-Cool kit and you'll have the tool to do all the different hard line connections. Except for 37 AN flares but they od sell a kit to do those too.

http://www.mechanicstoolsupply.com/search.asp?keyword=MSC71475+&search=GO i got mine on sale $266

and the 37 flare dies Adapter Set 71098 was $47 but there not showing it right now. I used Google shopping to find lowest price at the time.

One word of cursing / questioning on the 37 flares it comes with the units to do double flare but most AN /JIC are single flare so it takes awhile to figure out how to set the tube in the die to do single flare.

Dusterbd13 wrote: ok, im a little lost by this, nohome. metal lines are standard 60's fare IFF flares. rubbers are 80's-90's fare bubble flares. i have no sections of metal lines for the bubbles. and how do you do bubbles with a standard flaring tool? cause that would be great. i would love to just re-do the ends of the current metal lines to mate up with the stock rubber hoses that go with the calipres, if at all possible, this would be the cheapest and easiest solution.

Stop after figure 3. You can see the results in figure 4.

This is how MG guys have been doing flares for a long time.

I've tried several different flaring tools, never had one work. Sure it's more my fault.

NOHOME wrote:

Dusterbd13 wrote: ok, im a little lost by this, nohome. metal lines are standard 60's fare IFF flares. rubbers are 80's-90's fare bubble flares. i have no sections of metal lines for the bubbles. and how do you do bubbles with a standard flaring tool? cause that would be great. i would love to just re-do the ends of the current metal lines to mate up with the stock rubber hoses that go with the calipres, if at all possible, this would be the cheapest and easiest solution.

Stop after figure 3. You can see the results in figure 4. This is how MG guys have been doing flares for a long time.

sweet. simple enough. just one step shy of a correct double flare. i can do that on the car easily enough.

44Dwarf wrote: Just get the Master-Cool kit and you'll have the tool to do all the different hard line connections. Except for 37 AN flares but they od sell a kit to do those too. http://www.mechanicstoolsupply.com/search.asp?keyword=MSC71475+&search=GO i got mine on sale $266 and the 37 flare dies Adapter Set 71098 was $47 but there not showing it right now. I used Google shopping to find lowest price at the time. One word of cursing / questioning on the 37 flares it comes with the units to do double flare but most AN /JIC are single flare so it takes awhile to figure out how to set the tube in the die to do single flare.

There are a couple of threads on brake lines here in the past that had good info. I also have the MasterCool flaring kit. Best money I ever spent! I have loaned this tool out to a couple of people and they all say that they can't believe it can be that fast and easy to make a flare in a brake or fuel line. Sometimes the reduction of frustration and just plan hassles when you use a good tool like this has to be factored in to the actual cost.

jimbbski wrote:

44Dwarf wrote: Just get the Master-Cool kit and you'll have the tool to do all the different hard line connections. Except for 37 AN flares but they od sell a kit to do those too. http://www.mechanicstoolsupply.com/search.asp?keyword=MSC71475+&search=GO i got mine on sale $266 and the 37 flare dies Adapter Set 71098 was $47 but there not showing it right now. I used Google shopping to find lowest price at the time. One word of cursing / questioning on the 37 flares it comes with the units to do double flare but most AN /JIC are single flare so it takes awhile to figure out how to set the tube in the die to do single flare.

There are a couple of threads on brake lines here in the past that had good info. I also have the MasterCool flaring kit. Best money I ever spent! I have loaned this tool out to a couple of people and they all say that they can't believe it can be that fast and easy to make a flare in a brake or fuel line. Sometimes the reduction of frustration and just plan hassles when you use a good tool like this has to be factored in to the actual cost.

I like that!

I went from the cheap$20 hand flare tools that barely gripped the tube to a more upscale version of the tool that retailed for $125. The difference is night and day.

The thing is have have this....problem....I am a tool junky. And the tool you show feeds into my addiction. Now I know how many hubcaps I will have to steal to feed the addiction

This is the bubble flare kit I use, I've done at least two cars worth of brakelines with it, dont forget a tubing cutter and a deburing tool. http://www.amazon.com/OTC-4504-Stinger-Bubble-Flaring/dp/B0015PMZMU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361314217&sr=8-1&keywords=bubble+flare Bars are a pain to use on car, but not a Mastercool $300 amount of pain.

Mastercool kit is the only way to go!

$300 best money ever spent.

Flares make everything awesomer.

I like that!

I went from the cheap$20 hand flare tools that barely gripped the tube to a more upscale version of the tool that retailed for $125. The difference is night and day.

The thing is have have this....problem....I am a tool junky. And the tool you show feeds into my addiction. Now I know how many hubcaps I will have to steal to feed the addiction

Sorry tool junky here too. Like most of us i spent time with lower cost tools and finaly steped it up then kept finding i needed other flares too and said berkeley it and bought the mastercool.

i broke three bar style flaring tools wednesday night. ordered the mastercool kit thursday, had it delivered by friday after work.

oh my freaking god, why the hell did i ever bother trying to use those handheld, chinese made pieces of E36 M3? i had 4 flares, the lines bent, and installed today in the time it took me to make one with a bar style.

on the other hand, 300 bucks for a flaring tool was NOT cheap. i think im going to offer to rent it to local guys to make some of my money back.

will it ever pay for itself? no. was it worth every penny? HELL YES.

that is all. i just love this new tool.thanks for enabling me to purchase it.

michael

Quite the same feeling I had. I never had any luck with those cheap ones. I went with the eastwood kit when it was on sale for $150, best money I ever spent even if I never use it again

http://www.eastwood.com/professional-brake-tubing-flaring-tool.html

The mastercool kit is amazing too from everything I've heard, I just got sucked in with a good sale price on the eastwood one. Either way a good brake line tool is worth every dollar. The big advantage I see to the mastercool kit is it appears you could use it on the car, the eastwood one really needs to be mounted in a vice so on car work is fairly out of the question.

yes, you can use it on the car. one of the the lines had to be bent into place, then flared after being cut and shaped. little large for a wheelwell, but when you only need one hand to operate it, yo can make it work.