Who makes the best fuel line/brake line tube benders? I'm going to need to run some lines in the future, so I thought I'd look into buying the tools now and start practicing. So what do I need, and where do I get them??
Do not buy this one - sold at Harbor Freight and cheap auto parts stores. It's cast pot metal, and the handles will break. Any that looks like 36-3window's will give good service. Here's a page that might help you... http://www.classictrucksweb.com/tech/0501cl_brake/ Mutt
Fuel and brake lines? A bench vise, a really cheap old bender that looks like a small pulley welded to a metal handle and a little bit of practice to learn how tubing reacts to different physical inputs is all you need. I've tried cheap benders and very expensive ones, and I found that I can make perfect, flowing, kink-free bends with the crudest equipment just by knowing what the metal will do. (I showed DirtyT how to do a sharp, smooth 90 degree bend in 3/8" steel tubing using a dollar store bender and a vise. He didn't believe it till he saw it, either!) If I had a digital camera, I'd do a tech post. (But rat rods are supposed to use old, dry rotted rubber lines draped over flex tube exhaust pipes and kinked up, rusty old re-used steel lines from junkyard donor vehicles...not nicely bent and properly secured new hard lines, so maybe it's just as well!)
Listen to Fat Hack. We were running lines on my car and someone brought out one of those expensive benders. As far as I'm concerned they are an answer to the question that never should have been asked. More line was wasted with that overengineered goofy ass thing than what I replaced it with using the "pulley on a stick" tool.
Hey guys, In this article Mutt shows us, they show that "pulley-on-a-stick" bender...I want that one! Where can I find that particular bender? I'm going to look for a "contact us" link on Classic Trucks' web site..Any help in the meantime would be awesome. In past, I've used everything from Renuzit cans to vehicle chassis to my own arm to make bends..Worked pretty well at the time...now looking for the sweet tool! Hey Kevin Lee, since you mentioned that term-where to get one exactly like you mentioned? Thanks to all, Muddy Paws aka RJ