Cost of steel line and fittings...

[Belly_up]

Hi all, just wondering what the going rate (per metre) is for metal line and the brass fittings to go either end. I have to buy a whole heap sometime this week (have to run 7 lines around the engine bay, woo, that'll be fun), and i'm pretty sure the last place i went to ripped me off big time (as well as flaring most of the lines i got them to make with the wrong flare, despite the fact that they had the calipers there :mad: ).

So this time i want to get an idea of what it's going to cost before i walk into a place, thus avoiding large holes in my wallet.

Cheers guys,

[Trevor@BDA]

We make hard lines for a small volume vehicle maufacturer.
This system normally uses 5 lines.
I think that our customer charges his clients around the $150 or $160 per set figure
Trevor @ BDA

[smee]

I just bought a roll of the ADR brake line. Copper Nickel combo with the green coating on the outside.
Roll is a few metres long and cost $36..
Friend has the dual type flaring tool which I will borrow and I have small bending tool, plus borrowed bending tool.
Brass bits are about $5 each if that.
Bulk head T-pieces are a little more expensive depending on what you want.

[Belly_up]

Thanks for the help guys.

ended up getting 12m of line, and 19 brass ends for about $90 all up, which isn't too bad. $2 per end, and about 3.75/m for line.

Would have been a successfull weekend except that the brand new double flaring tool broke after doing about 6 flares, 3 of which were practice ones.:mad:

I strongly recommend not buying the $50 double flaring tool that Repco sell. powerbuild, or powergrip or something like that.

[Trevor@BDA]

"Would have been a successfull weekend except that the brand new double flaring tool broke after doing about 6 flares, 3 of which were practice ones."

Ah... now that's why we charge a little more - although not that much more
Our flair kit is a professional unit with quite a few flair tools and styles of flairs in it
It cost MANY hundreds of dollars and doesn't fail

Trevor @ BDA

[dattoman1000]

Can't go past the "one pull" vice mounted tool.
Does a flare in seconds and no winding and bits breaking

I won't use a hand flarer at all.

[Belly_up]

Originally posted by dattoman1000
Can't go past the "one pull" vice mounted tool.
Does a flare in seconds and no winding and bits breaking

I won't use a hand flarer at all.

Hey Dattoman,

What sort of tool is this that you're talking about, and where would i get one? any idea what they're worth?

Nothing more annoying than tools that don't work properly. at $50 i didn't expect it to last a lifetime, but 20 flares would have been nice.

[Trevor@BDA]

Probably the same as our's
It is a vice mounted single pull lever device with removable flair tools
Costs about $800-$900
AND I asked the low volume vehicle builder today (that I originally mentioned the other day) what he charged his customers for 5 completed/plumbed lines and he said about $110. Seems pretty reasonable when you add all the costs of pipe, fittings, flair tools etc
Are you finishing a kit car up there??
Trevor @ BDA

[Belly_up]

Nah, no kit car unfortunatley, a BWM with RB20 as per my sig.

I've had to relocate the brake boosters, and consequently needed to plumb new lines. 2 from the master cyl to the 2 boosters, 2 to each front caliper, and 1 to the rear, giving a total of 7 lines around the engine bay.

110 does indeed sound reasonable for doing up 5 lines, but i assume they have some sort of jig to use for the bending, whereas i'm making mine up as a go along.

But at this stage it looks like i'll just fininsh bending up the lines, and get the local brake place to flare them for me.

[Trevor@BDA]

Sounds like an interesting thing
Just bear in mind that you will need a fair sort of distance to the first bend from each fitting.
This is if you are going to use a decent brake shop with the proper flairing kit
In other words when you bend your lines up you will need about 75mm from the line end to the first bend - if you are going to flair the lines after bending
And no my price indicator was for straight lines only - bending can take a tremendous amount of time to get it right
Trevor @ BDA

[HoonBoy]

I bought a 6m roll of brake line for $28.60 a couple of months ago.