Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Stainless Steel Lines are Not Friendly

I realized I did not have the right cutting tools to properly cut the holes for the latches so I moved on to connecting the fuel rails.  I had completely finished running the fuel line except for this one last part.  I had no idea what I was in store for.  The stainless steel fuel line did not want to flare and I spent three days trying to get the bends necessary and get the proper flares.  A big problem was that the line segments were so short and the bends so close that it was almost impossible to slide the fittings over the end and still have room for a flare tool to work.  On top of this we were hit with a heat wave and +100 degree temperatures in the garage made this task ever more frustrating.  Though I don't have the pictures to show all the hours of work, here are the final results.  Bill loaned me the tool to put the fittings on the steel braided line.  I borrowed a flaring tool from Bill, too, and also rented one from Auto Zone and eventually borrowed another one to finally get all the flares done.  Only time will tell if they will hold pressure.