Hello All:

1967 Volvo 122S Wagon. Last weekend I had the pleasure of rebuilding the entire front suspension including new ball joints, bushings and shocks. Many thanks to Phil for his exceptional article. All went well and I would not suggest a single edit to his fine VClassics article.

I was careful as heck around the always vulnerable brake lines but even so, having learned my lesson after losing a lower ball joint at 70MPH on the Taconic a month ago I am eagle-eyed about anything that could go wrong. Some of my flexible brake hoses look a bit long in the tooth even though the previous owner's list of recent repairs included new brake lines, as well as a new FAG master cylinder. I take his note to mean just the flexible lines, not the hard metal lines but either way the guy who towed us home after the aforementioned Taconic Parkway incident suggested that our rear brake lines looked a little rusty.

Call me crazy, but I am really emotionally attached to safe, operating brakes. What do you all suggest? I know that for about $80.00 IPD sells a set of the nice flexible braided hoses that go from the brake mounting plate to the union with the hard lines. I am thinking I might want to replace the whole kit-n-kaboodle, from the mounting plates to the multi-valve, multi-valve to the master. What can I do to prep and check the hard lines for rust wear? Do people ever replace the whole system with flexible braided lines like we use on the Formula Ford? If not, is there some pre-bent version of the metal lines or am I doing this bend-for-bend manually?

Sorry for the long post, but you guys expect it from me by now.

Cheers,

Jeff Pucillo