Hello everyone who is still following this. Bought a new JVC R980BTS Radio. Looking forward to finally getting a usb and aux chord. plus something that is just nice. The Blazer hasn't the stock one for years. It currently has an older Pioneer Radio. Currently waiting for it to arrive and will be posting pics of the install on here

 

nice thread man, i just registered to let you know i'm following if you have any updates to post that'd be great. i just stumbled upon a 99 with very, very little rust for under $500. can't beat that. 189k and runs like a raped ape. first thing on my agenda is brake lines, so i look forward to that aspect of your build if you had documented it, please post it up! nice truck!

 

thanks Edblings for your comment. I have been on the forum even though my build is not very active. I still have to post a few pics of my radio and I actually just replaced the first brake line that goes to the left wheel a few weeks ago. I did use the copper nickel alloy brake line. Highly recommend, does not rust easily. So far it feels great. I have been busy now that I have school and a job now at the same time. My only day off is sunday. I will see if I took pics during the install because I think I did.

Anyway I do still have plans to do the other brake lines and i have a new dorman fuel sending unit amd a bosche fuel pump sitting in a box i got from rockauto. Just have to find the time. I still plan on doing a few more mods and this thread is not dead. Feel free to comment

 

So tuesday i got into the blazer in the parking lot at my school to drive home. Which that day it was also snowing, i started it up and my brake pedal sank halfway down and got mushy. I had a brake light on too. I already knew what had happened. My rear brake line had burst and i now had no pressure to my back brakes.

luckily i am in a special class with a bunch of other car guys and mechanics, so i asked my one friend to get in and press the pedal while i looked at the bottom of the car. Sure enough right at the 90 degree bend at the rear to go into the differential hose i saw fluid dripping and a small puddle on the ground. So i limped it home with only front brakes. immediately pulled it into the garage and immediately started working on it.

I spent probably about 10 hours total doing it right. Which by the way, use lots of WD-40 on everything. Don't want anything to break. I got the old one out and bent a new one out of copper nickel alloy tubing just like the factory one. i was able to fit into every one of the clips except 1. The line runs all along the top of the frame to around the firewall where there is a union. i replaced the front line that goes to the ABs unit since it actually cracked when i tried to loosen it and it was rusty looking.

While i was at it, i replaced the rear differential brake hose. the lines on the actual differential looked fine so i left them. By the way for anyone who needs to do this, the rear brake line is 1/4" unlike the front lines which are 3/16". I tried to loosen the drivers side wheel cylinders's bleeder screw and it just sheared off. i triple checked the ratchet to make sure it was on loosen in fear of this. so i stopped by advanced auto parts on my way home from school the next day and picked up 2 wheel cylinders. If any of you need specifics or have questions, feel free to post them and i will try to answer them while everything is fresh in my mind.

here are the pics:
Where it rusted out(right at the bend there was a pinhole):


What i was greeted by when i got home lol:


Old line out:


New visible part of the line from the wheel well:



It stops great again now and the tubing should never rust. Not the way i wanted to replace it but eh, what are you going to do right?

 

That line rusted out on my blazer and my 92 k1500. Chevy is notorious for rusty brake lines.

 

Really? I knew that mine were really bad there but i didn't know that almost all if them were rusty there. It sucks because the rest of the line looked okay except for by the union at the front part of the frame. I have a friend who has a k1500 and we redid all of his brake lines, brakes, fuel lines, fuel pump, etc about a year ago and i remember his brake lines being pretty rusty. It is almost like chevy doesn't coat them with some anti-rust coating that other brands do. But i have seen many gm cars with crusty looking brake lines now that i think about it

 

Same thing happened on my sons blazers but I opted to buy the stainless pre bent lines and spent an hour on my back replacing them rather than dealing with bending them myself lol!

 

Where did you find stainless pre bent lines?

 

Yeh honestly i probably would have bought those stainless steel pre bent lines had i known they existed lol. But the nice thing about the copper nickel alloy brake lines is they are easy to bend. much easier than steel

 

Here you are... https://sstubes.com/TIN9805

Edit: they have all the lines but the link I posted is specifically for the intermediate line running from the front to back along the frame. That is for the 2door model but they have them for the 4 doors too.