Brake pipes

Hi All,
A belated merry xmas and an early happy new year to all the members.

I have recently re-joined the club after a number of years with my 1980 std 1500 left in the garage with a head issue. The last time I had her out was the national event at Castle Coombe about 7 years ago. I have also seen a couple of photos of my car on the site from the national at Paxton House. I remember I camped on that one (never again !!)

I have now decided that this is the year to get the bar going hopefully in time for this years national event

Like a plonker I left the hand brake on when I laid her up and sure enough the brakes are seized solid. I have spare discs and brake pads but have decided to sort the brake pipes out whilst I am at it.

What bore of pipe should I be using please ? Also are the unions metric and if yes again what size/thread should I be buying.

I used Alternative Autos in Huddersfield for my spares back then s but I think he may have stopped trading. Any advice on good suppliers ?

Thanks in advance
Danny

Here is how I did the brakes on mine, after all the mistakes I made.
Take them to pieces. Take some pipe to a parts place and buy a roll of copper alloy pipe.
Go on the internet and buy a hand held flare maker, make sure it is the right one with the double flare as there are two types.
Go to eurospares and buy the nuts, flexible pipes, clips,seals, boots, pads, brass brake bleeders, everything you can think of.
Then buy stainless steel pistons from big red.
Have a go making flares on a bit of pipe.
This is much easier than repairing. The old pistons may need to be pushed out with compressed air, my garage did this for me. Fitting new seals and boots is not too hard using brake fluid for lubricant.
The rear handbreak adjustment i am going to the garage for as it seems to have a cover and it would be easier if the car was up high and in the dry.

Alternative Autos are still going. www.alternativeautos.demon.co.uk/ or trading as altautoparts on Ebay.

If the rear calipers are very sticky you might be better off getting some refurbished calipers. Don't bin yours as they are getting uncommon and they will want them in exchange in any case. Big Red would be a good place to look. You can still get the flexible pipes no problem and as David says it not much trouble to make up the pipes once you had a couple of practices. While the calipers are off check that the handbrake cables move freely and if in doubt replace. Its not easy getting the cables freed from the calipers, the usual mistake is not backing off the adjuster far enough as its fiddly to get at.
The copper pipe is often an imperial size (after all we've only been metric for over 40yrs!) , fittings you can buy are often imperial thread, the union fitting designs can be subtly different and so be methodical in your approach. Buy a small pipe cutter from a DIY shop, don't be tempted to use a hack saw as swarf will get into the system and the pipe ends will be probably a bit mangled from the saw. The standard pipes are of a much harder alloy and so if you need to cut into the existing system (because you don't want to/need to change the whole run of the pipe) do it somewhere where you can easily get the pipe flaring tool into to get the necessary leverage when making the join

I hope you do it. Such a good feeling when finished. Two further things though. Do it inside with space to get around the car comfortably. If you don't have this space it will be tedious outside. The best part is that the brake pipes fit under a junction block that someone at FIAT was thoughtful enough to place there on the master cylinder. I wondered how I could fit pipes into the top of the master cylinder and you don't have to, all you have to do is get yourself into the wheel well.
You will soon be a break expert.

"Joke"

My mate has started drinking break fluid, first a little taste on the end of his finger and now pint mugs. I said, aren’t you worried about becoming addicted, he said no, I can stop any time.

That junction block is a nightmare to get at and seems that Fiat did everything up extra tight to make sure. The pipes run from the master cylinder down to the ends of the footwell, this is where I cut the pipes to make a new join and to make up the short external sections that needed replacing for the front two brake pipes. On a previous unsuccessful effort at replacing the brake pipes I found that the copper pipe had a very slightly smaller outside diameter than the original (that metric imperial thing again) and so the flare you made had slightly less volume/dimension/size, this was just enough to prevent the pipe seating properly as the pipe fitting had got to the end of its threaded hole in the master cylinder before squishing the flare sufficiently. Worth double checking that the replacement pipes are the same internal and extremal diameters

Thanks David,
I have the space but lack the skills. I intend to just take my time and do what I can before I have to call a mate who is in the trade. I originally bought the fiat so I could do any work without the pressure of needing it for my daily driver. I have also now semi-retired so have no excuse with time restraints either (cash may become a constraint however !)

Hi Speedy,
The issue with imperial / metric sizes was my original concern so your experiences with this issue take me back to wanting to find the correct metric pipe. I searched on e bay but the results all appear to be imperial pipe. will contact some of the specialist suppliers.

Thanks everyone for the advice
Danny