any tips /help for awesome brake pipe bends etc

i can do okay with brake pipes , but they dont look 100% perfect always a bit home made looking , id like to do better show car standard stuff

any tips on making the bends and shapes etc (ive got a good flarer so no probs there)

 

A tubing bender makes nice tight bends and wont kink the brake line

 

As with any tool get a good quality piece. Not the $10 tool they sell at most chain parts stores.

 

Best thing I ever came up with for bending tubing: take a spare piece of tubing, about 4 in long, use a tubing cutter to scribe a line on one end, about 1/2" in. Now, put that line on the "Zero" marker of your bender, and make a 90* bend.
You use this piece to hold next to tubing you have run to see EXACTLY where you need to put your bend, transferring the scribe on the test piece (with a pencil) to the 'real' tubing. That way the bend is always precisely where you want it.
I've got a set of all the usual sizes.

 

start with straight tubing not rolls

use an fittings use tools by rigid

 

Here is a booklet you can download about bending tubing:
http://myplace.frontier.com/~wgmumaw/Tube%20Bending/Tube%20Bending.htm

 

Take your time and use quality tools. Brake line is cheap so if you mess up just throw it away and make a new one. Get a quality flare tool and double flare the ends.

 

Cheapo way to get tight bends at the ends......get a six inch nail and cut the ends off, solder a male fitting to one end and a female to the other......this can now be used to screw into the fittings on the brake pipes and introduce a nice tight bend either using your thumb of find a piece of tube or something to use as a former.The extra leverage from the "tool" makes it easy and you can use it in places where it would be difficult to get a bender set in.....3/16" is virtually impossible to kink.

 

These are awesome for tight bends..Came from a brake supply shop somewhere in the USA..Around the 30 - 40 dollar mark..expensive but good. No brand.