I had to walk away today - what a disaster.
I noticed a leak at a fitting, re-tightening didn't do anything, so I decided to splice in a section.
I had used the usual 2-bar tube clamp and die tool that you see everywhere for all of my brake lines. I recently had bought this tool as it allows use in tighter spots than the standard tool.
It sets up like this, lots of videos out there.
Decent flare.
Here's the new section.
I could get to the brake line on the car with this tool.
The new splice didn't leak but I really didn't like the waviness in the line after I had monkeyed with it. Just me - I like brake and fuel lines to look straight with good bends.
I was going to live with it since it's not noticeable, but I started poking around and found small leaks almost everywhere - what the hell!
There were leaks at front tee, rear axle tee, at the line lock and at the rear proportioning valve. I took a lot of care with prep work and examining every flare on the lines before installation. And I used the correct SAE double flare setup. SUM-TING-WONG but no idea why.
I tried to loosen and re-tighten the fittings to maybe reset them but no luck. If they drip - even super slow - now, they will leak all over the place when the pedal is depressed. So, after throwing a couple of tools around I sat and thought about what to do. I have the overall lengths of the lines documented, before any bends were done, so I know what lengths of line I need. In almost every case the lengths are almost the same as the straight lengths you can get over the counter.
I decided to pull them all out and go get straight lengths of Pro-Armor coated brake lines from the local auto part store. They have a sort of gray-green coating, are flared on both ends, and hold up very well. I've used them before. I've never had an issue with them leaking either. I'll use the existing lines as a bending guide for the new lines, so that will be much faster than the first time fitting new lines. I don't want to cut and re-flare the existing lines because then the length won't be right and I think they will look like the one I repaired. That one will be re-done as well.
So then I walked away and worked on the transmission instead. It's a hobby - sometimes one step forward, two steps back.