Major milestone! I was super stoked to finally get the brake lines completed last night! In my last post I mounted the ABS HCU in the engine bay, and started the front runs. While daunting at first, bending brake lines is awfully easy if you’re using NiCopp brake line. It’s very flexible and forgiving, and allows for adjustment on the fly without pinching.
One trick I’ve learned is to map out the path of the brake line with a rope and get the total length. This worked for all 6 runs that I did and turned out to be an excellent way to do this. Here’s a simple example of the rope/tape measurement for the rear driver side run. It may seem simple, and it is – but for someone who’s never done this before, it’s a valuable tip!
Here are some pics of the 4 different runs around the car:
Rear Passenger Side
The longest run was the passenger rear line, 2 segments: 1 in the rear and 1 long run on the outside driver tube. I used a larger 3/8″ gravel-guard on this run to protect the softer NiCopp line under the car from rocks.
Rear Driver Side
The rear driver side was rather simple. One short run from the trunk to the down-pipe, then a union to the long run up the driver side again. I used the 3/6″ gravel-guard on this but the 3/16″ clips are too tight so I innovated and used the 3/8″ clips with a 3/16″ clip inside to create a squeeze point – worked really well!
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the results. I have a few more parts coming in to seal up the Whitby power brakes and then I can bleed the brakes. I’ll have to do an ABS brake bleed once the OBD-II port is setup to finalize the setup.