Flaring Metal Brake Pipes
 

Looking into replacing rusty brake pipes on me car.
Long sections of brake pipe only have the ends corroded.
If I was to cut the corroded part off how difficult is it to flare the metal pipe?
I've seen these kit that do these jobs for £20 - £30 but I dare say they would work fine on copper but what about original metal brake pipes?

The problem is, and I've been down this route a few times, is the original brake pipe normally is made out of steel often powder coated.
This compared to replacement pipe ( I'm talking about copper here not the cupra-nicol ) ( yes I know I've spelt it wrong ) is very hard.
A hand held brake flare tool will flare copper with no problems, to the replacement part isn't going to give you much grief, but on the other hand, when you try and flare the old existing pipe, I've had the pipe push itself out of the die rather than the flare do the job it's supposed to! I've actually broke my S.P. flare master 2 trying to do this very procedure by tightening it in an attempt to stop the pipe pushing through the guide piece.

The type of flair tool you hold in a vice are far more robust, but obviously you would have to remove the pipe from the car to do this.

It's easy provided that your tool is capable of flaring steel.
If the tool doesn't specify that it will flare steel pipes then don't assume that it will.

Simon

Try wrapping a piece of emery cloth around the pipe and then clamp the die around, always flaring steel pipes on cars at work and its never let me down yet!

I use a sykes pickavant flaremaster 2 kit.


It's brilliant for flaring on-car & never let me down.


I've never had any luck with the cheaper hand-held flaring tools when it comes to flaring steel pipes & for me, never produced a really good flare.


Not cheap though unfortunately, an example of the full kit here.....you may find it cheaper elsewhere:


https://www.primetools.co.uk/product...ring-tool-kit/

Sykes kits
 

There's always the cheaper Sykes kit (link) as recommended here.

Sykes do 4 different Flaremaster kits - https://www.sykes-pickavant.com/prod...g-tools?page=1

As I said in my post, the link was purely an example of the full kit, I wasn't encouraging the OP to rush out & buy it.

I'm aware that Sykes do 4 kits but the only difference to both the full & basic 4.75mm (3/16in) kits is the additional upgrade tools for 6mm pipes (02726600).
In other words, the full or basic kit with the 6mm upgrade.

If the OP already has the cutting tool, de-burring tool (this tool is for internal & external burrs) & the pipe bending pliers then the basic kit is fine.

Of course, there's always a hacksaw & file. Copper pipe is very soft so the pipe can be shaped by hand to a degree (Kunifer a little harder to work by hand).
I like the above tools in the kit because it gives a nice cut & a nice finish when de-burring which aids a nice tidy flare.

I use mine on a regular basis & just recommended from personal experience.

I'm in a similar boat to the OP except I've got to replace both front pipes - the ones that go from the ABS modulator to the hose unions in the wheel arches. I've got no pipe tools at all so I've nothing to bend or debur with. Do you think I could get away with the scaled down 5000 kit, as opposed to the full 9500 kit?

If I bought the 5000 I'd need to get a separate bending tool (e.g. the Irwin 210) but I don't know if the one included in the 9500 kit would do a better job.


PS. Drat! That Irwin 210 was £18.99 last time I looked. :duh:

If you're going with Copper pipe rather than Kunifer, you could probably get away with not using a bending tool at all because the Copper pipe is so soft.


As said before, you could just use a junior hacksaw to cut & a small file to de-burr the the outer edge of the pipe at least.


In this case, the 5000 kit will be fine I'm sure.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brake-Pip....c100008.m2219




https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Silverlin...IAAOSwCRhd1TNX




Would something like this not do the job?