67/68/69 cuda dilemma
Heres better pix, and more pix. My advice if your going to flare 37° hard line, buy a Ridgid 37° flare tool. I had none that were defects. The T handle has a built in breakaway. Set the tube flush with the top of the hole, clamp, tighten it till it gives, then untighten it, and viola, perfect flare. I had a couple issues figuring a double bend. Made a bend guide and used that to figure the start of each bend. In the end it was 4 tries to get that one right. Glad I stuck to it. Another trick is to fill the tube your bending full with sand, tamp it down tight, and cap both ends prior to bending the tube. This is old skool mandrel bending and prevents the tube from crushing, linking and flattening in the bender. Dont forget to blow out all the sand when done.
In these pix, you can see why I installed the countersink fasteners. I could have cut u shaped notches in the framerail flange to access the screws, but I thought it would look kinda hokey. Bracket is only in place with a C clamp holding it. All that's left is to drill holes in the bracket and install riv nuts onto the framerail to mount it, but that's for another set of pix.
Heres better pix, and more pix. My advice if your going to flare 37° hard line, buy a Ridgid 37° flare tool. I had none that were defects. The T handle has a built in breakaway. Set the tube flush with the top of the hole, clamp, tighten it till it gives, then untighten it, and viola, perfect flare. I had a couple issues figuring a double bend. Made a bend guide and used that to figure the start of each bend. In the end it was 4 tries to get that one right. Glad I stuck to it. Another trick is to fill the tube your bending full with sand, tamp it down tight, and cap both ends prior to bending the tube. This is old skool mandrel bending and prevents the tube from crushing, linking and flattening in the bender. Dont forget to blow out all the sand when done.
In these pix, you can see why I installed the countersink fasteners. I could have cut u shaped notches in the framerail flange to access the screws, but I thought it would look kinda hokey. Bracket is only in place with a C clamp holding it. All that's left is to drill holes in the bracket and install riv nuts onto the framerail to mount it, but that's for another set of pix.
