old brake lines

[cbudvet]

Hey everyone,

I have a question. In the restoration of my 240z I have a quandry. I have the brake lines and fuel lines from the car and am not sure what to do with them. They seem to be in pretty good shape. Obviously most of the coating has worn away but they are not rusty and seem pretty solid. The question is.... do I have them replated and use them or do you replace them with either the stainless steel lines or make my own. I know part of the question comes down to authenticity of maintaining a stock 240z but my main concern is one of reliability. Have people out there found that after 30 some odd years, you are better off replacing them or if they are in good shape, reuse them and stay original? I also need to look into the cost of replating. I know the stainless lines are kind off expensive. Thanks again for everyones input.

carl

[240znz]

I can't see any reason why you couldn't get them replated. You will have to coil the lines up first however. I would run some wet and dry paper over them prior to sending them to the platers. Plating isn't as expensive as you think.

New lines are time consuming to bend and install.

[Richard Oben]

Tough question. I just installed the kit from Classic Tube on my 70 240. It took several hours and I am still not done. My car is west Texas car and the least rusty Z I or anyone I know of has ever seen. Mine were border line in a few areas so I replaced them. The brake and fuel lines were OK looking but for the money getting all new stainless seemed like the right thing to do. Besides your life depends on them being good.

On the other hand our club did a psuedo resto of a 75 280 and we put all the stock stuff back on.

I would clean out the lines and then let them sit for a couple of days and then clean them again, if they have any rust residue on the second cleaning I would replace them. Most lines rust from the inside out not the other way around. HTH, Cheers Richard. PS I just reread this and it really offers no real help ()

[cbudvet]

Richard,

I do appreciate the input. That has been my issue all along. How much do you trust 30 year old tubing? How you do like the Classic tube kit. I have heard mixed responses but I don't feel like trying to make my own. Let me know when you are done! Thanks again.

carl