Copper nickel (nicopp) brake lines

navela78

New Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2022
Messages
16
Location
Indianapolis
Sorry for cross posting. I posted in another forum but not getting any responses.

I live in the rust belt and trying to choose between copper nickel and stainless steel hard brake lines. I am planning to buy pre-flared and pre-bent lines so that is not a problem. While there are several threads discussing theoretical advantages and disadvantages I could not find much information on how things worked out in the long-term. I would like to hear from people in RUST BELT

1) if you have installed copper nickel? How long has it been? is it holding up well over years against salt and rust?

2) Does copper nickel get easily damaged? Say you are wrenching under the vehicle and hit the brake line by mistake. Will it dent/flatten the line?
 
Last edited:
Copper nickle won't flatten from a bump like that.

Stainless steel is great with salt. But is difficult to work with (sounds like that's not a problem for you).
 
I ran an entire stainless steel line set from the master cylinder back on another vehicle. It was easy and I wouldn’t say it was hard to work with at all, just some normal finagling.
If it was my money, I’d go stainless.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bigmac
Been using copper nickle for years in the rust belt. I'm very happy with them, use brass flare nuts with them to avoid joint corrosion.
 
Thanks Irun. Glad to hear that you have installed them on numerous Jeeps. Do they hold well against corrosion?

This is the only video I found online providing feedback after a year and it was not promising. Hope it was just a fake copper nickel line?

 
I bought a prebent stainless Dana 35 rear brake line from sstubes.com. They actually bent it wrong...it goes over the diff and stays up and misses the bolt down cleat. Also had to be massaged when I installed a track bar relocation bracket.

Heard lots of good things about NiCop and probably should have used it...

-Mac
 
I've used the 3 most common, Bundy tube, Copper Nickel, and stainless. My preference is still stainless. I don't like how soft C/N is, not really happy with how Bundy looks, so that leaves the SS as the best looking, most durable. It is also the hardest to flare but a bit of patience mostly helps. If I wasn't flaring, no question it would be SS.
 
Thanks for your responses @macleanflood and @mrblaine

I think I have decided to go with stainless.

Does anyone know of prebent stainless steel lines with stainless fittings? Most pre bent stainless steel lines seem to have regular steel fittings which seems to defeat the purpose.