[Joel Koontz]

I have been working on some brake & fuel lines recently and came across a product that I had not seen before.

It is a copper alloy tubing for brake and fuel lines. I initially got a piece of the brake line at AutoZone and the brand they sell is NiCopp. It was a good bit more expensive than coated steel line(IIRC I paid $13.44 for a 60" stick of 1/4" and the same size in Poly Armour was $7.88), but they told me it does not corrode and bends easier than steel lines so I decided to give it a try.

Bends easier is HUGE understatement. It bend VERY easily by hand and is MUCH less likely to kink than steel line. You can just wrap it around your finger if you want to.

I have not tried flaring it yet, but I have read that it is also much easier to flare than steel tubing. So far I have just used pre-terminated sticks. Since it is so easy to bend I just put a loop or loops in it to get it to be the length I need. I have ordered some in rolls so I will get some flaring experience in the near future.

At first I thought it was a product that just came on the market, but after doing some research I discovered that it has been used for decades. It has been used as OE on Volvos since 1976 and is currently used as OE by several European brands including Porshe.

It is called Cunifer in Europe and from what I have read, it NEVER corrodes. 76 Volvo brake lines are still like new. (75 Volvo lines needed replaced in 1980)

I have found the product available under the brand name S.U.R.&R. and have ordered some 25' rolls of the material.

After using this product, I doubt that I will ever fabricate lines out of steel again.