All the Right Bends – Pro Tips for Bending, Forming and Flaring Brake Lines with Sled Alley
Hot rods, customs, street machines, resto-mods, and pro-tourers – building them ultimately requires a certain amount of fabrication. If the mods or upgrades include brakes, they’ll typically need new, custom-bent hard brake lines. For those with little experience, hard line bending can seem intimidating, but there’s also something undeniably satisfying in their precision when they’re executed correctly. Doing it correctly is what we were after when we visited the Detroit-area fab shop Sled Alley. They were starting to bend the lines for a ’69 Camaro pro-touring machine fitted with Detroit Speed-supplied front-and-rear suspension systems, along with enormous disc brakes and a GM production-based antilock system (ABS).
A C6 Corvette master cylinder was the basis of this brake system. Additionally, the front suspension uses C6 spindles, along with C6 hubs on the floater rear axle. The brake system required hard lines from the master cylinder to the ABS module and another set from the module to each of the four brakes. While there is added complexity in incorporating antilock brakes to the car, the basics of fabricating custom hard lines for the system are the same as bending them for a conventional brake system, a fuel system, or other components requiring hard fluid lines. 
The mechanics of the project aren’t particularly difficult, even when it comes to flaring the ends, but the key is patience and a keen eye for detail. Careful measurements are required, but so is the simple act of eyeballing the lines to check the accuracy. It takes a bit a practice, but it’s a project that can be accomplished at home with the right tools.
Those tools include tubing benders, tubing cutters, and flaring tools, which range from simple and affordable examples from Harbor Freight or your local auto parts store, to more specialized versions that cost hundreds of dollars. As we’ll see in the photos, Sled Alley uses a variety of benders for wider- and tighter-radius bends, as well as different flaring tools to complete their brake lines.
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- When Flaring most stainless steel lines, Sled Alley uses a hydraulic hand tool from Mastercool, which offers greater pressure control that helps reduce the chance for cracking. A kit similar to this can cost $600 or more.
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- There are also times when a simple and inexpensive tool does the trick and Sled Alley also keeps one handy. A similar kit from Harbor Freight goes for about $30 and gets the job done, especially with softer brake like materials.
When it comes to the materials for building brake lines, there are four options: steel, soft steel, stainless steel, and a nickel-copper alloy that’s known by the trade name NiCopp. The basic galvanized steel is the least expensive and easy to work with, but it will develop surface corrosion pretty quickly. Soft steel is a low-carbon material that’s easy to bend and it’s coated with a thin plastic wrap to stave off corrosion. It’s a good, affordable option for an everyday driver. NiCopp lines are composed of 90 percent copper and 10 percent nickel. It’s a very easy-to-bend material and corrosion-proof, but stainless steel is the ultimate for strength, durability and appearance. It won’t rust and aesthetically, it looks the part. Not surprisingly, that’s what Sled Alley went with on this project.
It’s not too hard to bend brake lines. It simply takes time, an unwavering eye for detail, and the right tools. The tips and procedures outlined here offer a great overview of what it takes to give your project car all the right bends.
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- The line is positioned so its end is parallel with the end of the die.
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- Next, the appropriately sized flaring adapter is placed in the tool and, with this hydraulic tool, a handle is squeezed to force the adapter into the line and roll back its wall.
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- Here’s a look at the initial bubble flare. It’s the first of two flaring steps.
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- A second adapter is inserted in the tool to complete the full flare.
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- And here’s the finished, 45-degree rollback of the tube wall, completing the double-flare process.
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- With the flare completed, it’s clear why the fitting is slipped over the end before it’s flared. It won’t slip on over the flare.
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- For wider bends, a simple tool such as this one, which accommodates three line sizes, makes easier work of the job. It’s similar to the Rigid Tri-Bender, which runs about $60.
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- For tighter bends, Sled Alley use a handheld compound bender like this one. They’re easy to find, even at home improvement stores. They can be purchased for as little as $20.
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- For the line templated with the conduit seen earlier, an initial 180-degree bend is made.
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- Next, measurement marks made on the conduit are matched on the hard line, indicating where to start the bend.
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- That measurement mark is lined up with the 0-degree mark on the bender and the line is simply bent by hand to the approximate angle. The process continues for each necessary bend in the line.
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- On longer lines, the angles can skew outward and, in this case, the line is checked against the angles of another line that was already bent and test-fitted in the car. The new line needs adjustment to make it straighter.
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- It’s time to check the fit with a trial installation. So far, so good here.
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- The brake lines runs to one of the front brakes and its placement looks good there, too. The front brake lines connect to a fitting for the flexible lines, which is secured to the frame by weld-on tabs supplied by Inline Tube.
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- On the other side of the ABS modules, the lines run against the subframe and up to the master cylinder. Clamps also from Inline Tube hold the lines in place along the front cross member and other areas of the chassis and engine compartment, adding to the overall precision of the lines’ appearance.
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- A look under the hood of most new vehicles reveals the brake lines are coiled, typically near the master cylinder. The design offers motion-absorbing flex in the system and Sled Alley has started incorporating the feature into its brake lines.
Photos by Barry Kluczyk
