I am in the process of converting over to dual circuit brakes, and needed to make up some new lines. I'm planning on going through the entire car and replacing most of the hard lines as I am able. I had a rear line corrode through and cause a total system failure, which spooked me a bit about the condition of the remaining ones.

I looked around quite a bit for recomendations on the best materials and tools. General concensus seemed to be that a nice flare tool made all the difference. I ended up buying the flare tool sold by Eastwood company on sale for $160 (normally $200+). It is VERY well made and easy to use.

For lines and fittings, I bought from FedHill in MA. Very informative website, nice guys on the phone. They have all the Girling/british female nuts used in places on the 122 that are tougher to find. They also sell "Cunifer" tubing, a DOT approved alloy product that is MUCH easier to bend than the parts store stuff. Not cheap, but I have no problems paying a little more for quality parts going into a cars primary safety system.

Using a nice tool and nice tubing, the VERY FIRST flare I did came out better than what my friend said he was able to produce with hours of practice using a cheap tool and cheap tubing. A little time prepping the ends, and it takes all of 45 seconds to make beautiful double flares on one end of a tube, intsall the nuts, then make DIN bubble flares on the other end for caliper fittings.

I didn't have to re-do any of the 10 or so flares I did, and none leaked with just moderate torque on the tube nuts. I was really, really not looking forward to this project, thinking it was going to be an exercise in frustration. Using high quality materials it turned out to be the total opposite. I am MUCH more likley to finish off the rest of the lines now, and I have a couple friends lining up to rent the tool.

If you have a brake line project coming up, I'd urge you to consider using some of these materials and tools. It makes a sometimes frustrating task almost trivial. FedHill even has a "rental" program where you put a deposit on one of their high end flare tools and rent it for $25 a week.