There’s a Lotus Europa in my garage that I am bringing back from ruin one system at a time. Most recently I’ve worked on plumbing the brake lines.

The tube bender that I bought to help me shape the lines proved useless. Instead I bought a KWIX UK tube straightener from Eastwood and a pair of straightening pliers. Those got me through it. To have bought premade lines would have been a waste. Quite impossible. Not that there wasn’t waste already. I did several lines over. I’m still tempted to do the longest and most difficult one one more time because I’m vain. I want it to look nice.

Below, see the clips I tested to anchor the lines. I had some originals and used those first. Then I riveted in P-clips.

The brake pipe is cunifer, a mix of copper and nickle. My original lines were mostly too ugly and deformed to use as guides so I sought photos of original configurations on other Europa chassis.

The nuts are 3/8″ 24.  I used an Eastwood flare tool.  They are not kidding when they say the thing must be secured in a vice.

I opted to get a new Lucas Spitfire Master cylinder because it has identical linkage and specifications as the now seemingly unobtainable originals.  All that is different is the reservoir shape and the placement of the exit ports on the opposite side in metric sizes.

That isn’t bench bled yet so it isn’t installed on the chassis.