[Phil-T4]

Originally Posted by Odd Job

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.

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!