Bend Your Own Brake Lines With This Nifty Hand Tool

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Bend Your Own Brake Lines With This Neat Hand ToolILLUSTRATION BY BROWN BIRD DESIGN


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Without proper experience, bending your own brake lines can be a daunting task. There's little room for error, meaning if you're not super accurate with your bends, the line probably won't fit up correctly. Learn how to bend lines with ease with this nifty brake-bending hand tool.

These tube-bending pliers are the perfect way to break into the world of brake line bending. Simple in their construction, the set of handles comes to a head at a trio of curved, indented metal inserts that allow the user to put pressure on a line and bend it as they desire. It doesn't take any electricity or hydraulics to operate, just a bit of practice and some accuracy.

This is the most basic version of a bending tool you can have, but it still works, which is nice.

<p><a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=74968X1596630&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.harborfreight.com%2Ftube-bending-pliers-95782.html&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.roadandtrack.com%2Fcar-culture%2Fa42395338%2Fbrake-line-bender-tools-we-love%2F" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" data-ylk="slk:Shop Now;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas" class="link ">Shop Now</a></p><p>Brake Line Forming Tool</p><p>$8.99</p><p>Harbor Freight</p><span class="copyright">Harbor Freight</span>

Thanks to these pliers I've been able to bend several brake lines for my cars. The most notable job I can think of involved installing an entire new line for the rear brakes on my BMW 325iX project. The original line was rusted away, so I had to splice in a new hard line that ran from the engine bay all the way to under the gas tank. Thankfully I didn't need to do a whole lot of bending, but the few bends I did need to perform were easy thanks to these pliers.

Because tube-bending pliers aren't complex pieces of machinery, they're reasonably affordable. The Pittsburgh set I own can be purchased from Harbor Freight right now for $8.99, and I swear by it. If you're not a fan of the plier-like style, Harbor Freight also sells a clamp-style bending tool with angle measurements for just a dollar more. If you'd rather buy from Amazon, Capri Tools sells a similar model, albeit for a bit more money.

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