My first ever DIN Flare .. I made earlier. + Question.
 

I've ordered This Kit off ebay a few days ago and it arrived this morning.

I soon got stuck in and, following the easy to read instructions and diagrams I was delighted with the end product of my very first attempt flaring attempt. The Kit also contained 25' of 3/16" Copper Brake Line, Pipe Bending Tool and some Male and female Jointing Unions

It also contained the actual tool to complete the various Flaring types including the one I need for my MG ZT.

One question. The kit came with a Copper Brake Line. Is copper only suitable for use on my MG ZT, otherwise I will need to get some Cupro-Nickel Brake Line.

The tubing will be fine John nothing special about it,just bog standard copper tubing. :smiley:

That's the flare tool I bought and I can't fault it, creates a perfect flare every time, unlike the cheap £15 flare set I got first that never works.

You should have no problems with pure copper pipe on the zt.

Standard copper will be fine John - just try not to bend it more than necessary (bending causes it to work harden which eventually leads to pinhole-type corrosion).

That looks like steel pipe to me could be wrong,steel pipe always needs more effort to flare looks spot on well done.

Going back to a previous thread regarding mig welding did offer you the chance to have a go you may have missed the post offer still stands if interested.

Kunifer is a better one to use as it doesn’t work harden like copper does. Copper is actually illegal in some countries as it fractured easily

The original brake pipes are steel with some sort of coating. Whatever it is, it corrodes pretty quickly giving a white 'efflorescence'. Many 75/ZTs failed their first MOT on brake pipe corrosion. I wire-woolled all mine after two years and double-coated in Hammerite. After the Hammerite was fully cured, they were then labbered in WaxOyl and I've had no MOT issues thus far.

TC

I noticed the pipes on my 45 saloon have some sort of green plastic coating.

The Rover OEM lines are galvanised (zinc-coated) steel.
The white stuff is zinc oxide, which is the zinc corroding and protecting the steel.
(If even a tiny spec of steel is exposed to moisture - say from a stone chip - then an electrochemical cell is setup and the zinc starts corroding in preference to the steel).

Although its far too late for the cars now, best thing to do is remove any evidence of the zinc oxide (as well as any surface contamination, obviously) use zinc primer and then several coats of hard-wearing paint.
That way you've got paint protecting the zinc, which in turn is protecting the steel.

As an aside John, pure Copper yields (permanently deforms) at around 70MPa from memory, steels being 180-220MPa ish for typical mild steels, but can be all the way up to ~1000MPa for high-strength structural applications.
Hence, your estimation of needing twice as much effort to flare the steel is not very far wrong at all!

It’s been done to death many times but here goes.

Cupronickel ( kunifer) tubing is superior to copper in terms of its fatigue resistance. If excessive cold work is done when flaring the ends of the tube, there is a risk of premature failure due to fatigue at the flare. The fatiguing mechanism is driven by line pressure when the brakes are applied. Of course all pipes need securing along their length too.

For me copper is a poor choice and Kunifer is a worthy compromise as it’s a bit more difficult to form and bend. There is also a minor cost difference.

I understand that many have used copper with no problems for years but I just can’t see why you wouldn’t want to increase your factor of safety on a critical system.