Brake pipe brackets

Brake pipe bracket

Finished brake pipe bracket

This weekend I worked with the rear brake lines. The first problem I hit was getting the knock-on pipe clips in place. Trying to drill into the tunnel chassis rails in the side proved impossible, because getting a drill in there was difficult. Fine drills simply snapped when ANY pressure was applied, and thicker drills wandered and did not drill in the right place.

Drilling out the brackets

Drilling out the brackets

I decided to rivet a bracket to the bottom of the rail, and then mount the clips top that. A few lengths of 35mm wide aluminium strip were masked up and marked out with 20mm wide tabs placed at 80mm intervals, meaning that the clips would eventually be spaced at 100mm intervals. The holes were drilled, and the tabs cut out, and after a lot of filing and sanding, a bracket was ready for use.

3 down, only 1 more to go

3 down, only 1 more to go…

 

I need four brackets, two for each side of the tunnel, as I need to run two fuel lines and one brake-line from front to rear. Producing the brackets took all morning, and some of the afternoon, but by the end of the day I was ready to start mounting them to the chassis.

 

 

Bracket mounted on the bottom of the chassis rail (the whole chassis is on it's side to make for easier accesss)

Bracket mounted on the bottom of the chassis rail (the chassis is on its side to make for easier access)

Finally the knock-on clips were mounted on the bracket

Finally the knock-on clips were mounted on the bracket

The final fitting of the brake pipe has been left until I do the fuel pipes, as now the chassis is on its side I have decided to move on to fitting the side panels. The pipe will be a lot easier when the chassis is the right way up.