I'm planning on running some new brake lines, and the copper-nickel "Nicopp" / "Cunifer" stuff seems to be the way to go.
Should I bite the bullet and go with the fancy stuff - BrakeQuip or Fed-Hill? Those are $55-60 for a 25 ft roll.
Amazon has it as cheap as $20 but is that just going to be Chinesium? I'm reluctant.
Summit has it for $32 a roll. Maybe the quality/price intersect point?
S.U.R&R
I bough from Amazon and the tubing I received came from what I consider a reliable source.
I would still use steel in some applications but the Nic-Cop lines for any street car that doesn't see HI-Per use but does see winter, etc.
I just redid the lines on my wife's car with Ni-Copp brand line from here.
60 bucks got me a 50 foot roll of 3/16. I bought the metric ends from them as well.
With as much of a PITA brake lines are I figured the name brand was worth the extra few bucks over rolling the dice with Amazon.
AGS and SUR+R are both very good quality. I've never tried the real cheap stuff.
The Ni-Cu stuff I bought at Autozone still looks new after a few winters on the K1500, and was really easy to work with. That's my only personal experience, though.
In the last year i've made a lot more hard line than i wanted to, and all of it was the cheapest stuff i could get from Amazon, and none of it was as easy to work with as ni-copp, and all of it turned out fine. With hard line you are 99% limited by the skill of the tool operator and 0% limited by the line and the other 1% i haven't figured out yet.
What i figured out that you DONT want to do is try to salvage a nice piece of 3/8" stainless line from a scrap fuel rail crossover tube and try to work THAT. Holy hell. I learned!
I like the look of that SUR&R stuff. American made, & not very expensive. Just a touch more than the Summit house-brand.
I'm looking at the fittings now.
Almost everything on the brakes is "bubble flare" with 3/8-24 male threaded fittings. I can do that.
The brake bulkheads for the Wilwood kit are AN-3 37-deg single flares. I can do that.
The clutch slave - from a NC Miata - is M10 x 1 female thread with a convex seat. Soooo.... What there? Is it just a 45 deg double flare with the correct male fitting?
Any recommendations on a clear guide to this kind of thing?
In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :
the seat in the slave is convex? i'm not asking out of shock, i just want to be clear on the configuration.
In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :
Standard double flare on that slave cylinder. I buy rolls of NiCop from my local Napa store. No shipping, and supports the local FLAPS.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) :
the seat in the slave is convex? i'm not asking out of shock, i just want to be clear on the configuration.
I'm sure you have better terminology for all this. I used those terms based on this graphic from Pegasus:
It looks just like the pic in the bottom right corner.
I had a hard time sifting through what was a good brand and what was garbage this spring when I redid the lines on my truck. I ended up buying from The Stop Shop on eBay, it was reasonably priced and seemed to be quality enough.
I tried some of the cheap stuff and its garbage. Half the time the flare would get messed up and crushed sideways. And I have a quality flare tool!
I would hope the name brands are of higher quality. The only thing I was able to successfully use the cheap stuff for was the cross over tubes on my brake calipers (very tight turns). Took several attempts to get a good flare on both ends though. For the rest of the car I used regular steel lines when I replaced everything last winter. Even did the fuel hard lines in the regular stuff.
I get my nicopp and fittings from inline tube and never have issues
I just use the stuff from the parts store. I don't remember the brand and it has been fine. I really like it for the much less force it takes to do the double flairs and some bends are easier. Other than that it is not much different then regular coated steel lines (the ones with the weird green coating). If I do the coated steel ones I will put waterproof grease over the ends where it goes in to the fittings to keep water off/out of this area as you expose the steel when you do the double flair and in my mind it may make taking it apart some day that much easier.
I redid all the lines on my truck like 13 years ago with the FedHill stuff, been perfect ever since. Run a rag over them and they look brand new. And yes, they've seen plenty of salt. The brake lines are the only thing that still look new 
asphalt_gundam said:I tried some of the cheap stuff and its garbage. Half the time the flare would get messed up and crushed sideways. And I have a quality flare tool!
I would hope the name brands are of higher quality. The only thing I was able to successfully use the cheap stuff for was the cross over tubes on my brake calipers (very tight turns). Took several attempts to get a good flare on both ends though. For the rest of the car I used regular steel lines when I replaced everything last winter. Even did the fuel hard lines in the regular stuff.
Are you sure you're cutting the line square? Unsquare cuts do what you describe to the flare in my experience.
Buying cheap stuff from Amazon means supporting the Chinese takeover of manufacturing. My new rule of thumb is that if it is a discretionary purchase I will not buy Chinese if at all possible. But if it is a necessary purchase I will consider it.
bearmtnmartin said:Buying cheap stuff from Amazon means supporting the Chinese takeover of manufacturing. My new rule of thumb is that if it is a discretionary purchase I will not buy Chinese if at all possible. But if it is a necessary purchase I will consider it.
I try to subscribe to the same policy. It can be hard but not impossible.
I also like to shop at local stores. Even better if they're not chains. Again, tough but worth trying.
Is saving 30 bucks worth it when it comes to brakes? I think for peace of mind I'd get the name brand stuff.
jimbbski said:I would still use steel in some applications but the Nic-Cop lines for any street car that doesn't see HI-Per use but does see winter, etc.
Care to elaborate on NiCop's shortcomings for performance use?
In reply to Jesse Ransom :
NiCop has no shortcomings. Use it anywhere you would use steel.
Scrimping on brake line is akin to buying a $20 crash helmet to protect your head.
So a whole day later it finally occurred to me that a lot of yall live in places where brake lines actually corrode. Otherwise a lot of these comments seem really silly. The burst pressure of a 3/16 line is probably higher than the burst pressure of your femur trying to make that pressure. There's PSI and there's PTAFOASI (pounds per tiny-ass fractions of a square inch) which is probably more relevant to the ID of a 3/16" line. Is anyone checking the COO of their brake hoses which have lower limits anyway? If anyone has bought cheap steel brake line (and why ISNT this stuff way cheaper by the foot then rubber hose? could be that rubber production happens in far more labor-exploitative places than steel production!) and blown it up in the MIDDLE (ie not at a connection or bend they made with their own personal talent level) and wasnt related to corrosion, i'd be surprised. But hey, maybe all the hundreds or thousands of people who that happened to cant tell me about it because they all died in flaming wrecks. DAMN YOU CHINA!!
Anwyays, sorry for forgetting about rust. 
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