Cautionary tale - and a rant ...

Last year I spent two days remaking every brake pipe on the car before the engine went back in including the ones on the rear subframe while I had it out of the car, imagine today I go under the car to finish off some loose ends and find Cupro Nickel (Cunifer / Kunifer) brake lines rusty - yes I know there's a very small amount of Fe in them but not enough to cause surface corrosion you can chisel off ....

Anyone buying Cupro Nickel brake lines or the pipe for DIY do the magnet test people, if the magnet sticks send it back. A magnet may show a passing interest but even the strongest over the counter should not stick to 90/10 Cunifer, I just threw 25ft in the trash. I am now faced with burning even more time doing a job all over again because a supplier doesn't control what they sell - or doesn't care - kind of hard to send it back. The line from the back to the front was no damn fun at all, I suppose I at least have a pattern but not sure how the hell I'm going to get it up behind the heat shield. Going to have to remove the front calipers to do those - the connector from those to the flexy hose is an absolute bear because of the steering arm. Feeling a bit like Watch Wes Work - if it is worth doing it is worth doing twice ....

I had the same BS issue with fuel hose labelled as R9 on one of my other cars, that was rotten in 2 years.

Can't trust anyone these days where the only thing that matters is effing money ....

 

Counterfeit Chinese made stuff, some stuff is just passed off as something it really isn't, other items are logo counterfeited. Anything off Amazon or ebay (in the US) should be suspect unless you know the supplier.

Doug

 

Ben,

Maybe pay a bit more and use someone such as Automec https://www.automec.co.uk I've not had any issues with their products and first used them in the 80s.

Cheers

Paul

 

I hear ya but trust me this wasn't about money - if it were the car rebuild wouldn't have cost over 24k (so far) - and spending a lot is no guarantee, boy have I found that out - substandard bushes, substandard hoses, often from reputable suppliers, I actually have a brand new power steering line from one of those suppliers and it flat out won't fit, I bought ready made metal lines for the front calipers and those ended up in the trash as the bend was too far from the caliper and fouled the steering arm, over the last year or two I've encountered a number of things that I have bought that will be forever in the box of lessons learned.

I have a thing about paying others to do stuff that I am both equiped to do and capable of, I don't need somebody to make up my brake lines, the biggest challengs on the XJS and any other car is getting clean bends in the right places and Automec lines don't help that part. I buy fittings and line so that if it isn't just how I want it I scrap it and do it again, I have a full fat and rather expensive turret former for doing the ends. I have I confess got work done by others and have posted as such - the differential / drive shafts and rear hubs - but I did this for speed to get the car back on its wheels within weeks rather than months.

Issue here is that I was charged a premium for what has turned out to be utter garbage.

Won't lie though I did look at getting a set from Automec, still might, though I have bought some more tube it will get a magnet test before I even open it - as would Automec's lines if I go that route - I'm more annoyed that I need to repeat work done which delays work that needs to be done - this project is stretching the enthusiasm to breaking point.

Did I mention that some of the powder coating flaked off a caliper yesterday too ....

 

Sympathies. Courage!

 

That's depressing just reading about it, I can only imagine how frustrated you are.

Hang in there!

 

Ben,

I share your frustration, it seems the world has become obsessed with low price and quick delivery and sod the quality and impact on the customer.

I wasn't really advocating you buying a set from Automec as I also share your desire to do things myself where possible. I meant maybe buy a roll of their cupro-nickel pipe and do the bends and fittings yourself?

Cheers

Paul

 

My fittings are all new and not rusty so they will get used again

Didn't know you could order pipe from them - thought they only did the kits, guess I'm guilty of not looking hard enough