During a panic stop last night , I felt the peddle go kind of soft on my 95 Caprice. I manage to limp it home. Turns out I blew the hard line to the rear. I don't have the tools to fab up a line, so I'll need a shop to do it. Worst part is the lines are inside the frame rail, and the underside is nice and crusty thanks to wonderful salty Illinois winters. What should I expect to pay to have someone do this for me? I need cheap, but not ghetto dangerous cheap.
The real issue is, the rest of the lines are going to go either when you repair the broken one or very soon thereafter.
If you want to keep the car do them all IMHO.
That said, it's not difficult to do and you can buy the lines pre-bent if you need.
I dunno about pre-bent, but you can buy them pre-flared in various lengths. All it takes is a cheap bending tool to make them the correct wiggly shape. The fact that they're inside the frame rail isn't going to make life easier of course.
Many cars run them along the floorpan of the car just to the inside of the frame rail. Add a few clips and you should have a factory quality replacement.
Contact the major hard line manufacturers (Inline Tube and Classic Tube) first to see if they have the pre-bent for your car. The prices are very reasonable. Also, NAPA, etc may have some generic brand pre-bents in stock. Otherwise get some pre-flared straight ones (super cheap) and make them yourself! I bought an old quality tubing bender for little lines like that from a used tool store for $5, I'm sure you could find the same.
If you work with your hands you can bend the lines yourself but very carefully or they will fold and kink closed. The benders are safer and work really well.
I would bet once you touch the hard line, you will find yourself in a heap of hurt. The fuel lines will be in the same condition, all the bleeder screws will be seized, and so on.
A shop will charge you by the hour, and a good shop will most likely want to replace all the hardlines at the same time. It avoids comebacks for them, and piles all the pain (for both them and you) into one bill.
You can do the job yourself, but the first thing to do is climb under the car and assess everything- Do the bleeders loosen? Are you going to have to save some of the odd sized nuts from the lines and flare them yourself? Are there fuel lines in as bad condition as the brake line? Does the local jobber store have a good supply of line , nuts and fittings? Do you have the tools needed to finish the job?
A small final piece of advice: it will be easier to do the whole job than to try to patch something together. When dealing with rot or rust , you have to get rid of it completely, and start from good structure.
go up to the ABS pump and locate the line to the rear. cut the line, remove fitting from the pump with a 6 point socket, and take it to the store to match. estimate the length you need and buy the proper sections and couplers. then run your new line close to the old one to the rear hose. leave the old one there. i do not recall the lines running inside the frame anywhere on my caprices. they ran in the open c channel under the floor but where the frame was closed they kicked out and ran to the inside of the car.
you dont need a bender, just use various round items like a section of pipe or your knee to bend the lines.
How about braided lines all the way? You could even fab those up yourself.
Thanks for the quick replies. Found a guy on CL. Sounds like he knows what he's talking about. I mentioned flares and he said "They're doubles. All of them. It's illegal to do single." Made me feel better. Quoted me $70. If it ends up under a hundo, I'll feel great. Plus he started work already (on a Sunday!)
There is no way to pre-estmate that type of repair, you just do not know what you will run into. I saw a rusty Dodge truck in our shop with a bad hard line, the tech tried to remove the fuel tank and a bracket broke off of the frame. 
I'd do the preflared (but not prebent) lines and the small bender. Don't try to remove the original line or even exactly copy its routing, that way lies madness. Snake your line as near as practically possible but don't be afraid to go out of the way, so to speak. Stay away from exhaust stuff, you don't want boiliing brake fluid.
The biggest problem you are going to run into is that whatever you are screwing the lines into will be crusty as well. You'll need to look into borrowing a small torch (propane will not do, BTW but a MAPP/O2 should probably be hot enough) and be prepared to replace whatever they screw into.
Never torch a flex line. If you get it hot enough to do any good, it will burst.
The best thing to do is to snip the line off just above the nut, hammer a socket onto it, and remove it that way. Line wrenches work only on new lines.
If the wheel cylinder bleeders don't open, it will be a miracle (or extreme competence) if the hardlines on the axle don't need replacing as well. Competence means, don't try to turn the nut, unthread the wheel cylinder from the nut instead. THEN go at the nut with a torch and get it to turn on the line.
I really do not like to think about how many brake line replacements I've done. We go through many 25" rolls per month.
I dont recall ever replacing a hard line for a paying customer. The last one I replaced was on my Spitfire and that was because the flare was tweaked by a previous owner. Thank god I dont live in the rust belt.
If it wasn't such a rust bucket, I wouldn't have second thoughts about attacking it myself.
porksboy wrote: Thank god I dont live in the rust belt.
Amen! I don't even use flare wrenches and never have a problem with brake lines.
The problem of rusty brake lines is a regional one. If you live in an area where they use salt on the roads in the winter and if you keep your car long enough or buy a used car old enough there is a good chance you may loose a hard line to rust. In the south or south west hard lines can last the life of the vehicle.
jimbbski wrote: The problem of rusty brake lines is a regional one. If you live in an area where they use salt on the roads in the winter and if you keep your car long enough or buy a used car old enough there is a good chance you may loose a hard line to rust.
I have replaced hard lines on three year old cars.
Toyotas are especially susceptible. It's the sheathing they put the lines in, it holds the dirt and salt in.
Knurled wrote:jimbbski wrote: The problem of rusty brake lines is a regional one. If you live in an area where they use salt on the roads in the winter and if you keep your car long enough or buy a used car old enough there is a good chance you may loose a hard line to rust.I have replaced hard lines on three year old cars. Toyotas are especially susceptible. It's the sheathing they put the lines in, it holds the dirt and salt in.
nothing i own has original brake lines except my 96 astro, which has holes in two of them and is not on the road right now.
the 95 astro had a front and a rear pop at the same time rendering it with no brakes at all, luckily it was uphill. my 90 silverado is going to be on set 3 of fuel and brake lines soon.
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