Pre-bent fuel lines?

[38convsedan]

Anyone know of a vendor selling pre-bent fuel lines for 1938 Fords?

As always, thank you in advance!

[Kube]

Originally Posted by 38convsedan

Anyone know of a vendor selling pre-bent fuel lines for 1938 Fords?

As always, thank you in advance!

I'm gonna hazard a guess here and figure you want a line from the fuel pump to the carburetor. Correct?
If so, Mike Driskell I believe has them.

[DavidG]

And Michael's are made of the same copper-plated steel-wrapped Bundy tubing that Ford used back in the day.

[busmania]

What if I dont care about pre bent or "correct" lines? What do y'all recommend?

[38convsedan]

Thanks for the information.
Anyone have tank to fuel pump lines? (Actually…tank to the rubber fuel hose that connects to fuel pump).

[DavidG]

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Michael may have those as well, also made from Bundy tubing.

[Flathead Fever]

I always make my own brake and fuel lines. One time I ordered a pre-bent fuel line for my '66 GT-350 from a place that only specialized in Shelby parts and it wasn't even close. After that experience I make my own

I got pretty decent at making brake and fuel lines at work. The first time you'll ruin a couple pieces of tubing, but you can use those pieces to make some useful aids.
What I did for my projects here at home was bend a bunch of small pieces of tubing with bends from 10 degrees to 90 degrees. I made them up in 3/16", 1/4" and 5/16" tubing. When you put the tubing on the bender there is a piece that swings over it and holds it in place. I mark the tubing with a sharpie right where it's held in place on the bender. Then I make my bend and cutoff the tubing behind the sharpie mark. When you're done, you'll have a bunch of these little bent pieces of tubing at all different angles with sharpie marks on them. Here is how they work; say you want to make a piece of brake tubing that goes across the front crossmember with a 90-degree bends on each side so the tubing will end up the perfect length to fit between the frame rails on both sides. I would take two pieces of my prebent tubing with 90-degree bends and fit them against the frame rails. Then measure the distance between the two sharpie marks. Then I bend one side of the brake line and mark the tubing where the bender held it, Measure from that mark over and make my second sharpie mark and set the bender on that mark. If I make a bend at each sharpie mark, I will end up with a perfect length brake line. You will have one factory double flare on the end where you made your first bend you'll have to cut the other end to whatever length you need and flare it. Those ruined pieces of tubing is what you practice making flares with. The tubing is fairly cheap. If you start by making the longest tubing first and ruin it. You will probably be able to use it for a shorter piece somewhere else. If I remember correctly 60" was the longest piece of tubing, you could buy with flares and nuts on each end. Anything longer like a line from the tank, and you have to buy the tubing in a bulk roll and straighten it. Some of these people at auto parts stored will try and sell you tubing with "bubble flares" they do not work on a traditional double flare fitting.

One mistake you might make is to make a bend and not have the nut at the end with the flare. Then there is no way to slide the nut past that bend. It's a good idea to tape that nut in place. The other mistake is you'll flare the tubing and forget to put the nut on first. The tubing will be a precise length and if you cut it off to put the nut on and flare it again it might end up being two short.

Seems like I'm missing some pieces, there probably in the bottom of the toolbox. Just to show you, I laid a couple heads on the ground that would require two different angles bent on the tubing if it was going to go between them. I grab the two pieces with the angles I need from kit and stick them in place. Then all I need to do is make that 90-degree bend on my tubing on the left end and mark the tubing where the bender was at. Then measure the distance between the mark it on my two test pieces and make my second sharpie mark on the tubing. Then take that bent piece of tubing on the right and put it in the bender and see what angle it is. Take my tubing with the mark and line it up in the bender and make my second bend This is the best way I have come up to do this. One thing you need to watch for is there is a lot of slop in these benders. You need to make sure the bender is lined up on "0" before you make the bend, or your tubing will be short or too long.

Excuse that dirty '32 chassis hot rod project. That line was made the way I described. There is way more distance between that crank nut than it looks. The other line is down a rear radius rod. I used the same method to get the length for where I wanted that 90-degree bend to end up. The other bend I just did by hand. The tie-wrap will be replaced with a clamp.

[flatford8]

Looks like you got that operation dialed in to perfection!......Mark