What to do with metal brake lines?

[Rags]

What are my options for cleaning up the metal brake lines and fuel lines so they don't look like crap? Really not looking to replace them and paint doesn't seem like it would be a wise move since the brake fluid would take it off pretty easily. What have you done?

Joe

[EuroDat]

I removed mine and cleaned them with Cif, hot water and a kitchen scrubbing pad. They are zinc coated so you need to be careful otherwise you will remove the zinc coating.

[Rags]

I removed mine and cleaned them with Cif, hot water and a kitchen scrubbing pad. They are zinc coated so you need to be careful otherwise you will remove the zinc coating.

Hmmm, mine seem to have some green coating on them and I'm not sure it is zinc. Anyone else have this?

Joe

[Mike W]

So I just went through this for my entire car. I strongly contemplated buying new lines and bending them myself, but decided to go the refresh route instead. I'm very happy with the results and would definitely go this way again, although some of the clean up process was tedious.

I removed all lines and separated them from the junction blocks as well as from the proportional valve. If the pieces were small enough to fit into my media blaster, I plugged the ends and used the media blaster to clean off the lines as well as the fittings. Before painting, I completely flushed the lines to ensure there was no media left behind. Also blew them out with compressed air as a final insurance policy. Took the same approach with the junction blocks as well as the proportional valve.

For the longer pieces that would not fit in the blaster I used a combination of scotch brite pads as well as 000 steel wool. This worked as well as the media blaster except was a little more tedious and it was more difficult to clean the fittings.

After that, I primed each of the lines with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. Applied 2 coats to each line and other pieces. After the undercoating was completely dry I used another product from Eastwood called Brake Gray (Brake Fluid Resistant Paint). As you will see from the before / after pictures below, I think that they came out very well. I will also say that as much as I like the look of the paint from Eastwood and it does provide some resistance to brake fluid, it is not completely immune to it. I had one very small leak when I reassembled my lines and I did lose a little of the paint where the fluid leaked, but after drying and cleaning up, I was able to touch up the area with some spare paint that I had leftover.

Hope this helps. See pictures below.

Mike.

[240260280z]

Beautiful transformation Mike!

[Wade Nelson]

Simichrome polish and a rag. Polish 'em like you would a shoe, wrapping the rag around the line. After you're done you could consider clear-coating them or plan on doing it again in 6-12 months.

[jfa.series1]

Similar to Mike W., just not as exotic/professional products. All lines were removed from the car, degreased, cleaned with a Scotchbrite and then a paint thinner wipedown. All threaded fittings were taped off. Everything got a Rustoleum primer, then a Rustoleum Brilliant Metal color coat, topped off with a gloss clearcoat. The fasteners received the same treatment. I was lucky enough to not get any leaks so paint repairs were not required.

Jim