oldzy

My frame was recently powder coated (to be used on my 72 Cutlass Supreme) and I am going to install the fuel and brake lines first. A few questions...

1) Which do you prefer and why... OE steel or stainless steel?

2) Should I use my original steel Proportioning Valve, or get one of the new brass repro ones? I have rear drums and front power discs.

3) I removed the Carbon Canister long ago... which fuel lines do I need? Do I just use the main line? What about the return and vapor lines? I don't even recall 3 lines originally, but could be mistaken. I recall putting a rubber boot on the end of one of the lines under the hood when I removed the CC.

Thx

70 cutlass s

You can buy a role of stainless steel cheap. Than bend it the way you need it. Pretty easy. As far as how many fuel lines it depends on which fuel tank you have their are some that have 3 some that have 2 places for lines. One thing that is for sure that you need a vent whether it's a canister or the vent that mounts on the frame by the tank.

rocketraider

Stainless will not rust, but it can be tricky to get a good seal at flare connections. If I had my time to do over, I'd have used OE steel lines on my Starfire instead of the stainless.

Lady72nRob71

If the OE steel lasted 40 years under normal driving conditions, new OE steel will last probably 70+ years under "babied" conditions that most collector cars are given.

oldzy

I am going to go the OE Steel route.

In re to the gas tank, I guess I screwed up back in high school as I plugged that vent hole under the hood. It was like that ever since. How is it properly vented near the gas tank? What does this 'vent' look like that mounts on the frame? I want to mount an electric fuel pump at some point also (not sure where the best place is for that yet on the frame).

Thx

joe_padavano

Why go through all the trouble to powdercoat the frame, just to use steel lines that will have a coating of rust in a few months. I use stainless.

oldzy

Darn, now I all confused. I went and ordered OE steel brake lines from inlinetube and here you be saying it will rust soon on my newly powdercoated frame. Oh well. The frame will will prob sit for years anyway before the body gets redone, so we shall see. I can always order the stainless if I don't like the OE.

On a related note, I have 4 somewhat bare spots where the frame sat while it was powder nosed. I hope I can 'paint' some Chassis Black paint on the spots.

gearheads78

The stainless looks much nicer but takes some effort to seal up.

66ninetyeightls

So just give the OE lines a good coat of paint before mounting it on the vehicle. Then once its mounted paint the parts you couldn't before assembly.

Lady72nRob71

Eastwood sells different shades of "raw steel" colored paint, if you wish to paint the lines before installing them.

OLD SKL 69

On any of the cars that I have restored, I have used stainless gas and brake lines. I just figured that for the small amount of additional money, it was worth it. I never had a problem sealing up the lines either.

I do not think the steel lines will rust on the outside if you have it in the garage and out of the weather. And if you use silicone brake fluid, you don't have to worry about the brake lines rusting from the inside out. (Especially when these cars sit for a long time.) Something to consider, either way it will work out fine.