Community Forums:

bending steel brake line is sort of an art. I recomend one of the screw type benders rather than the lever style ones. I have found that you can exercise greater control using the screw ones. Go slowly and try and use the old line as a template if it is available...(my experience is mostly with american muscle and rarely to the lines come out in one piece). Tight bends on large diameter steel line can require lots of force so a bench vise to hold the bender may be a good idea. Remember not to go to far and make the bend too tight because "opening" up the bend is really difficult. I learned the old style way to bend tubing from my grandfather which invlovles filling the line with sand and manually banding it. the sand prevents (somewhat) the line from being pinched inward and kinking. I don't recomend this way as it is more time consuming and a bender is not very expensive. Additionally if you intend on using compression fittings i recomend picking up a flaring tool also. it is not always necessary to flare the ends of the line for use with compression fitting but it is a good idea (my 68 firebird 400's lines have been together for 6 years without flares). good luck to you and you tuning adventure