Yep, good save. My whole first day of this job was accounting for my gear, and stamping (mostly failed) double inverted flares and cutting them until I figured out all the little techniques to doing it right, so I wouldn't screw up a 20' run of the stuff. I can't work on much of this at a time due to my schedule, but I've got the two 1/4" reservoir lines cut and flared, and the front left wheel taken care of. Just three more to go then I get to find any leaks! While the other three are far longer, it's a LOT less fiddly... that front left wheel was annoying because the line had to snake through a lot of corners and metal shaped like a twisty straw doesn't snake well.I had a tough experience replacing brake lines a couple years ago. Failed lines were on a Ford sedan. Went to the nearby parts store and bought American-size bulk brake line and fittings. They loaned out for free a brake line flaring tool set. Every time I tried to flare the line end, the flared end came out crooked and useless! MANY tries. Finally I realized that the store sells both American and Metric brake lines etc. for use on all cars, and the flaring tool kit they loaned me was for metric lines. In it, the small "mushroom" die you stick into the end of the cut line has a shaft to slip into the line bore. and then you compress to shape the end. This set's die had a shaft too small, so it would NOT stay straight when being compressed in, and the resulting flare was crooked. Back to the store, and they do not have an American flaring tool set to loan out! I finally sweet-talked my favourite mechanic into loaning me the proper-sized mushroom die from his American set, and the very FIRST try with that was perfect! All splices completed and worked just fine. LUCKY I had started out by cutting the line too long, because I had cut off short pieces with bad flares several times before finding the problem.
Fixing the bumper gap and sag on the Trailblazer. It was due to a bumper mount (plastic) coming unbonded to the bumper which seems pretty common with these. Special guest appearance by "Muffin"....
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Here is the offending plastic mount. I used epoxy:
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Yeah it ran all over. Had it clamped for two hours, gonna let it harden for a couple more hours. I used "quick set" epoxy that is supposed to be 'working strength' in 6 hours. All surfaces were roughed up with coarse sand paper then scrubbed thoroughly with rubbing alcohol and brush to degrease.
Replaced my rear brakes today; they no longer make the squeak of death.