Mixing up the pain

Been busy payin the bills, not a lot of time for the car but it looks like that will change very soon.

For the past two weeks I’ve been ordering and waiting for fittings and lines to get the brakes operational and get fuel to the still disassembled engine.

Years ago I started gathering steel line and fittings to make my own brake lines. Now that I’m at the point where I can actually install the lines, I decided to save myself a little grief and buy a brake line kit. I selected one designed, supposedly, for the 1969 Boss 429 Mustang from a company called Classic Tube. I paid the extra for their stainless steel version. Gave CJ Pony parts a bump in their cash flow and ordered the kit through them.

There will be some modifying to do to make the kit work with my particular application.

I had removed all of the original brake lines when the floor was replaced. I still have them in fact but at this point of the build, why take a chance with 50+ year old steel lines? Especially with the move from a single reservoir master cylinder and 4 wheel. non-power, drum brakes. The Boss 429 kit is plumbed exactly for what I’m doing…almost. The Boss didn’t come with rear disc brakes.

The fuel lines will be a little unconventional so a kit doesn’t really exist. I want to run 1/2” hard lines for most of the run. I’m using a FiTech EFI. I had bought 1/2” aluminum fuel line in preparation of this and then I read the installation instructions and FiTech clearly states that the DO NOT recommend using aluminum line. poop.

I’m sure there are a lot of folks that would choose to run PTFE fuel line at this point. I’m not one of them.

I know it’s perfectly safe and I even know people who run it from nose to tail but I don’t get warm fuzzies thinking about having flex line that exposed under the car. It’s me, I know it is. I ordered 1/2 inch stainless steel lines and will be doing the bending myself.

I will be using short lengths of PTFE though to go between the chassis and the engine, need a little flex in the line for the engine wiggle.

Being an EFI car now and with an in-tank fuel pump, I need to run a return line from the FiTech back to the tank so that just doubles the cost of everything. It wasn’t till after I had ordered the SS line that I discovered Copper Nickle fuel line. Cost isn’t any different really but bending and flaring the line would have been a little easier.

The quarter panels and trunk are rusted. I’ve known this for a long time. I’ve known about that even before I found rust in the rest of the car. This project has drawn out way too long and not too long ago I made the hard firm decision to ignore the rust for now and focus on getting the car running.

I now find myself going back on that idea.

The gas tank I’m using puts the fuel outlet and return lines on the top of the tank. Since the top of the tank is essentially the floor of the trunk, I’m planning on drilling holes through the trunk floor and using bulkhead feed throughs. I don’t want to have to do all of this twice. On top of that I’m putting the battery in the trunk, so again, don’t wanna do the work twice. With that to consider, I’m complicating my life a bit and I’ll replace the rusted parts of the trunk floor and make the fuel line and battery install a one and done.

The finish line was getting sooo close. Yes, it’s a job that has to be done but I wanted to hear the engine come to life and maybe even drive the car a little before diving back into panel replacement.

I hope I don’t cause damage that requires having to purchase additional panels. I have the necessary replacement pieces already, don’t want to find myself being too liberal with the cut-off wheel and cutting into my wallet.