Hose and fittings

[Rick_L]

It's been a while since I've purchased much in the way of hose and fittings for performance cars/race cars. Just wondering about what's out there new vs. the traditional stuff. When I say traditional stuff I mean the Russell/Earl's/Aeroquip hose with a stainless steel braid and those blue and red fittings.

I've seen the Aeroquip air conditioning hose with the nickel plated fittings. I like the look and you can do your own hose terminations with an inexpensive tool. The hose cover is black nylon. It's smaller and lighter than SS braided Aeroquip hose and a whole bunch easier to work with.

I see that Russell and Earl's (probably others) now have black nylon braided hose, as well as black anodized and bright anodized hose ends. What's the look on the hose? Is it a bright shiny black, or is it the dull fuzzy looking stuff you see on industrial hose? Or something in between?

The above stuff is hose suitable for water, fuel, and oil at reasonably low pressure. Most of it has re-useable hose ends just like the old "traditional" stuff I described above.

What about high pressure hose for things like power steering? Traditionally the custom hose for this is a Teflon tube with a stainless steel overbraid, and crimped stainless fittings. Are there any black hoses out there for the p/s stuff?

Looking for ideas and choices.

[chevynut]

Rick, it amazes me that someone doesn't come out with a line of hoses and fittings that work in all applications. They don't have to be made the same, just LOOK the same. The only way you can get that right now is stainless steel braided hose, or at least that's all I know of. I would also like to see some nice black braided hose with nickel fittings. You can get low pressure stuff like you mentioned, but I haven't seen anything for high pressure use but plain rubber, or rubber and cloth.

[Bihili]

http://www.edelbrock.com/zmags/russell.shtml

[Rick_L]

Apparently there are a lot of choices out there for aluminum hose ends that aren't the traditional red/blue, as well as some quality fabric covered hose for low pressure applications. I got a link for some Australian high pressure hose for p/s applications, but most only have the bright SS, or you can use the stock style stuff.

As chevynut said, there's simply no solution that has a consistent look for p/s, fuel, and a/c, unless you go with the bright s/s.

[shua57]

I have FTPE SS braided brake lines on my 57 that I had custom made from someone out in Cali. SS braided hose covering come in different colors. Example:
http://www.spieglerusa.com/brakes/cycle-brake-line-kits.html
and I wonder if you couldn't use a fiberglass braided sleeve, they come in different colors as well:
http://www.cableorganizer.com/fiberglass/?green=47F7E48B-79FF-505F-AA96-93DC68175968#
Or you could just buy high pressure hoses from like Parker and buy fittings and a hose crimper. You could check with Goodyear Engineered products also, they make really good hoses and most of theirs are not SS braided wrapped. I think there are options out, just running down the data and making the contacts might be a little time consuming. I know the hydraulic hoses I just had made for a backhoe was not braided, I think they were silicon coated which some place like this could do:
http://www.flexfithose.com/Industrial-Hose/PTFE-Hose/
Might not be what you are looking for.
Josh