First problem was my Harbor Frieght 3/8" tubing bender. Discovered it was too slopy because the bender was made to fit 3/8" i.d. tubing and not tight enough for 3/8" o.d. tubing that i use. Not to knock HF as the strength and finish was good enough for me and would have been fine for larger tube. I dug up my old General tri size bender and it worked great. Tight 180* bends easily.
I've found that some brake line is better quality/for fuel line use than others. After several attemps at a 90* bend with some green colored stuff from Auto Zone i found it continued to flatten instead of bend round as needed. Bought some 3/8" brake line from NAPA and it bent up just fine.
So i updated my pix in my sig to show off my new lines. Or use this link http://www.cardomain.com/id/cardo0. I built a return line by drilling, taping, JB Welded in a brass bushing (and tee) into the Qjet inlet (thats a lars rebuilt Qjet BTW ). Both lines are covered with Home Depot plumbing insulation glued on with 3M weatherstrip adhesive. The return has a 0.040" orifice installed to act as recirc to maintain fresh/cool fuel and constant press and connects to the old vapor return line to fuel tank. The new Carter fuel pump didn't have a vapor return fitting and now i won't need one.
Pix don't show much of the polished Edelbrock wtr pmp but its a great match for the polished Edel Performer Air-Gap.
I think i have it the way i want it for now and will see how it works out. BTW that can on the right side of installed inlet tee (no not the fuel filter) is my Holley electric fuel press sensor. I should know what my inlet press is at any time from the drivers seat.
Just have to fix the oil in drivers wtr jacket crisis first. cardo0

 

Lars has a great article about bending fuel lines... I'm forgetting the corvette article site that has it.

Maybe somebody else knows! Its got a bunch of great articles!

 

Here it is

http://www.corvettefaq.com/c3/HowtoBuildaFuelLine.DOC

 

i actualy have a question related to fuel lines, so instead of making a new thread i will ask it here. I recently found out my vette leaks a liitle fuel, andi havent had a chance to realy look but i beleive its coming out right where the fuel line connects to the tank. my question is is there like a rubber gasket i can replace or to i have to completely drain the tank and take the tank and the fuel line off the car and fix it that way? this wouldnt be something id normaly ask but the car is 70 miles away in storage for the winter, so i cant just go out to the garage and look.

 

If the leaks on the bottom of the tank... I think you'd take a bath.

That is the page that I was talking about...

I'll have to save the corvettefaq.com page... again! Keep losing it!

 

There is a trick I've used to bend short refrigeration line that will allow tighter bends than a bender will make. Take a piece of insulated stranded electric wire that will fit easily into your tubing. Slide the wire into the tubing well beyond where you want the bend. Bend your tubing by hand to the sharpness you need, and pull the wire out. The wire will bend with the tubing, but not allow the tubing to collapse.

 

That's called a mandrel. Cool technique.

 

Strictly from memory on a '72, I believe the sending unit has a short piece of pipe on it and then a rubber hose goes from it to the hard line on the frame. So you may have a leaking sending unit or a bad gasket between it and the tank. All just my best guess.

 

i have had to add water into and cap both end's to keep from kinking some tight bends (water doesn't compress as eazy as air )

 

An other trick that my Dad told me about (many-many years ago) and I have use it and it works. You can fill the gas line with dry sand, then make your bend, when your done pour - the sand out. The sand will keep the tubing from kinking.

 

Thats a great Idea right there!

I'll have to pickup some tv cable or something...

 

Yea i wanted an all steel fuel line also and read lar's post. But when i started collecting parts the special line required for that type of filter is a special order from my Chevy dealer and subsitute small pieces with correct type bulge & flair with O-ring are $15 each at Auto Zone - bad bends and mistakes would become expensive fast. That special filter was'nt cheap (but not really too expensive either). At less than $5 for 5 ft of 3/8" steel brake line i could afford plenty of mistakes. I'm think'n the lars design might be great for a high fuel pressure application and worth the expense then. I submitted to using 2 short pieces of flex in a visable location. That steel line by lars is a great piece but i'm a bit cheaper and for my plans the 2 short pieces of flex will be just fine as thier both visable and not in contact with any metal. And i may change my fuel lines again when i install my A/C compressor. I had planned to use a larger FRAM filter but submitted here to for lack of a good brace/bracket for the heavy filter housing. And the FRAM has 3/8" NPT ports that will allow hard line plumbing entirely. I need to install the compressor first to sort things out.
Those are some neat homemade benders but now i feel spoiled with my General tri size. It works like a hand tool should - fixes things right instead of creating more work/problems.
BTW there's an O-ring sealing the sending unit to bottom of fuel tank - at least in my '74.
Good night all. cardo0

 

Thought i should add that the flares are all doubles and that steel tube flares much better if cutting the tube with a hack saw rather than disk/circle type tubing cutter. Using the normal disk type tubing cutter seems to work harden the steel tubing end and i had many crack while trying to double flare. So what i learned works best was to cut tubing with a hack saw then file square to clean end. This left the metal soft enough to double flare. And to replace a bad/unwanted flare trim far enough away to remove the hardened steel end. BTW i stumbled onto the new mini-hacksaws (Home Depot, etc.) that work great for small work and fit in the tool box.
And for the rubber flex tubing ends i was able to bulb the end by just starting a double flair - not finishing/completing the die stroke/press. Works great to seal the tube with a clamp behind the bulb and looks like commercial made fuel line.
Good luck and have fun bending up ur car (lines). cardo0

 

Those mini-hack saws are great...

I'm struggling to find some decent hacksaw blades though!