hello all. i'm getting ready to restore my entire fuel system on my 68 coronet rt. they system is cobbled together now and i'm going to use a spectra tank and straps.

my question is this: do i use the stainless steel lines and pickup or should i stay with the original style steel?

th car is kept in a non heated attached garage and is well kept.

i'm thinking of using finelines as they are local to me and seem to have a good reputation.

thoughts.

I went with stainless lines from Right Stuff, also local here in Ohio. Im using their lines for my fuel and brake systems. They've been installed since 2008 and no issues yet, and 0 leaks.

I like regular steel lines and have used Fine Lines and they were fine! 7 years later and no rust, but my car spends most of it's time in the garage.
Although it has been outside for 2 weeks now.

I am kind of up in the air on the whole stainless line thing. They do look nice, and if you get them pre-bent it won't make you crazy attempting to flare the ends. The only thing that makes me skeptic is the fact that stainless work hardens and become brittle. That said I have had stainless fuel lines that were only attached to the carb at the bowl fittings and to the fuel filter run for years with no problem.

When I re-do brake lines and stuff like that I usually go with cunifer, which is copper-nickel. It will not rust and is kind of the color of tarnished stainless. It is also very easy to flare, bend, etc. and has a burst strength as high as steel.

I went with stainless but would not go that route again. I just installed the lines in the fall and it was a PITA. The lines needed a lot of tweaking to fit and stainless doesn't like to bent easily. The clamps are definatley under some tension. Standard lines would have bent into shape easily and there would be no strain on the clamps.

If I were to do it again, I'd probably RPM the standard lines for some extra protection. I accually bought steel trans lines and plan to RPM them before installation.

Go stainless, do it once, do it right....sure it's a PITA to bend/rebend or flare....use the proper tubing wrenches to tighten the flare nuts, add some oil or liquid teflon to the treads to ease tighting as stainless likes to gall, I replace ALL the lines in a car with stainless, sure some guys claim the steel is fine, not going to drive the car often,no rust, yada, yada, yada, maybe on the outside, but inside the line?...brake fluids, and esp higher blends of E-85 fuel absorb water/moisture


Do what you want, but I've had more issues with rusty steel lines over the decades, than any with stainless

thanks guys! i was worried about the stainless leaking. i'm going to replace the entire system from the fuel cap to the carb so all my fittings will be new and i hope the stainless will seat as such.

i was leaning toward stainless because of corrosion and now i think i'll go that route.

have a good day, rob

I went all stainless, fuel, brake, no problems, looks great after 7 years.

I just went through the same thing for my brake and fuel lines.
I ended up going with the NiCopp brand, it is a nickel-copper alloy that has the strength and structural integrity of steel lines, but is more corrosion resistant and easier to bend than plain steel or stainless.

Here is the site:

http://www.agscompany.com/automotive/brake-fuel-transmission-lines/nicopp

They also make the green coated Poly-armor brand that is also easier to benc, and less expensive than the NiCopp.

I bought mine online at Autozone usig the discount coupons to save 15%.

Three things:
1. Steel, even low carbon steel like brake lines, work hardens also. Work hardening is not the right reason not to use stainless steel. Getting the fittings to seal can be a problem, some don't have a problem with this and some do.
2. The best answer to fuel lines is the copper-nickel alloy mentioned above. I ran into it while specifying material for heat exchanger tubes. It's basically 90/10 copper/nickel and is used a lot on ship heat exchangers because it's so corrosion resistant. It is also easy to work with and seals up better than stainless steel.
3. Stainless steel is springier than mild steel and so if you're making a bend you need to bend it a little more than required so it becaomes the right shape when you take the bending pressure off.

Good to know, thank you for the info.