A particular challenge of restoring a less-then-common vehicle is that not every worn-out part can be ordered from a catalog. Sometimes you need to hold onto your old parts for reference so you can re-make them yourself later. That’s the case with the original steel fuel lines and brake lines on Project Sunny, our 1993 Range Rover. Some of the lines measure nine feet long and still contain traces of brake fluid or gasoline. Storing them safely for later is at the bare minimum an inconvenience if not a safety concern.
The original lines were all too corroded to reuse; however, they’re still valuable as pattern pieces. We plan to remake them using new brake line tubing material and our bending and flaring tools. As we’ve been storing all the other take-off parts in plastic tote bins, we figured it would be convenient if we could the same with these hard lines. But how do you store a nine-foot, pre-bent line in a two-foot bin without deforming its shape?
The answer, of course, is to cut them. Carefully. To preserve their exact bends and jogs for recreation later, it was important that we could precisely reassemble them. And that meant planning ahead. Here’s how we got nearly 50 feet of fuel and brake pipes into a storage bin the size on an Igloo cooler.
Measure Up
Before you start, consider where you’ll make your cuts, keeping in mind the maximum internal dimensions of your storage container. Our 27-gallon tote had a max diagonal length of about 24 inches, so we aimed for cuts just below that. To make things simple, we tried to prevent making sections with too many extreme bends.
Keep it Straight
Your goal is to be able to reassemble your old lines later to use as patterns. To ensure that, it’s best if you cut on straight sections of pipe. Once you’ve identified your first cut, clean up the area with a scuff pad or sandpaper, if necessary, and wipe with a solvent, such as Pre Prep.
On Your Mark…
Using a Sharpie marker, make a straight line a couple inches long on the section where you’ll cut. A black Sharpie works well on bare metal. However, we used a silver one for greater contrast on sections where the original dark green coating was still intact. On each end of the line, make a hash mark indicating which cut you’re making. We marked a “I” for the first cut, a “II” for the second cut, and so on. This is critical to getting the sequence correct when reassembling it later.
Cut the Line
Using a metal tubing cutter, cut the pipe at about the center point of the line. These inexpensive tubing cutters slice cleanly and don’t remove any material, maintaining dimensional accuracy. They also don’t create sparks like a cutting wheel, which could be important when cutting fuel lines.
Label It
Using painter’s tape, we marked the section of tubing for each piece. On this vehicle, six brake lines run out of the master cylinder – two for each front caliper and one for each rear. Four of these were long enough they required cutting, so they were labeled accordingly: “LR Brake Pipe,” “RR Brake Pipe, etc. The fuel system had just two lines running from the tank in the rear to the engine compartment, one supply and one return. They were likewise identified. To avoid mixing up pieces, cut and label only one part at a time before moving on to the next one.
Wrap it Up
Once each line was completely cut and each section labeled, we used zip-ties to bundle the pieces together for storage. While the bundles can be a little more cumbersome to nest neatly in the bin, they’re all together for later.
Pro Tips
- Use compressed air to blow out any remaining fuel or brake fluid from each section as you cut. Brake fluid especially can linger in the lines and pool once you put it in the bin.
- It’s possible the tubing cutter may remove some of the Sharpie lines. We found this especially true of the silver marker. As soon as you cut, remark anyplace the ink may be missing while it’s still obvious to you where it was.
