51 Buick Special Brake Lines

[Guest]

Hello, I need some help with my car. My question is will the lines from a 1950<BR>Buick special fit my 1951 Buick Special 45R,<BR>as no one has the 51"s lines. Thank You<BR>for any help.<P>LouisNJoan<BR>

[palbuick]

I would try several of the brake line specialist who advertis in Hemmings. I needed brake lines for my 40Buick, In Line tube did not have any specs for my 40 so I sent them all of the brake lines, 5 pcs, I requested them in stainless steel. A perfect fit on all lines, and since they didn't have samples they cut me a real discount price.<P>Sometimes a bit more expensive but well worth it.<P>Jim Schilf / palbuick@aol.com

[brad54]

I agree about Inline Tube--They're great to work with. They had the lines for my '54 Special, and I also ordered them in Stainless. They were perfect fits (though running the fuel line through the front of the frame was too hard with the body on the chassis, so I cut it and added a fitting). Their number is 800-385-9452.<BR>I'd also suggest getting new fuel lines at the same time if you're just shopping for brake lines at the moment.<BR>They also sell all the clips you need to attach them to the chassis.<BR>

[palbuick]

They should also have the fuel line from the fuel pump to the carb, I have one made for my 40, which should be very close to any Straight 8 , 320 cu. the smaller motor may be a bit shorter.<P>Jim Schilf / palbuick@aol.com

[Dave@Moon]

I've used Inline Tube and Classic Tube for new lines (Inline did the lines for a 1979 Hurst/Olds, Classic did my 1960 LeSabre). They are both great assets to the hobby. Both will reproduce any line you send them if they don't have the pattern stored in their computer. <P>Classic had my LeSabre lines' design already in their computer (so they thought), and I ordered a set from them. It turned out that the car they made the pattern from had had the rear lines previously replaced with hand fabricated lines which were incorrect (more gradual bending, no coil shielding). They had me ship their lines back with my old, correct lines and they reproduced them perfectly as well. <P>I did mine in stainless as well. The price diffence is insigficant.<P>You'll never be able to hand-reproduce lines as correct looking as these products. If the installation is easy (see next paragraph), the time saving aspect of using these guys is worth the price alone.<P>One caution, on my 1960 the brake line to the rear ran inside the frame rail from the front inner fender to a point under the front seat. Feeding a pre-made line through that channel was one of the toughest jobs I've ever done on a car. <P>I tied a string to the old line, pulling it through, and used it to feed the new line back through. I spent <I> <B> 3 or 4 hours </I> </B> feeding the new line in, pulling (gently) on the string. I'd get to a point about 3-4 feet in and the line would be pulling the string further in instead of the string pulling the line along. Once I got past that point there was some difficulty getting the line out of the exit hole (about 1/2 hour), but nothing like the "phantom channel" problem I had.<P>Never-the-less, the final result was much better than anything that could've been hand reproduced. I'd reccomend using either one.<P>Good luck!