Coloured engine hoses
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Well I had a brainwave a while ago about coloured engine hoses and pipes and have been wiating to try this out so this weekend I finally got round to it when I got my powder coated parts fitted.
This is easy, very cheap and very effective :wink:
To get coloured hoses you need to buy lengths of…
HEAT SHRINK TUBEThis stuff is used by electricians mainly but is used in a lot of other places and it couldnt be simpler to do
Just remove the hose, the main radiator one is quite large so i will use that as the basis and I managed to find some 50mm heat shrink tube, which is just slightly larger than the main rad hose so to get this on I had to use washing up liquid + water and a lot of pulling and squeezing and it went on
Cut the heat shrink tube roughly 20mm longer than each end
Then using a hairdryer or heat gun simply heat the tube up all round so it starts to contract over the pipe make sure you have covered all of this and it will take out any creases in the tube when its done properly and the ends will shrink right down over the pipe
Cut the ends off the tube flush with the ends of the pipe
Make sure you leave to cool down properly
When back to room temperature the reaction that happened in the shrink tube will have hardened now but it is still flexible but once its cooled down it is over it cannot be reactivated by heat so job done and now refit pipe to car
Its worth just getting new slightly larger clips as the standard ones become tight now with the extra millimeter of girth on it
With this tubing it is designed to shrink to a maximum of 50% original size so make sure you get the correct stuff
For all the hoses I did in the pic I used 1m of 50mm and the powersteering pipe is around 30mm so shrunk down perfectly onto that one
TOTAL COST for the 3 main hoses £3.50 :shock: :shock:
MOST COLOURS AVAILABLE
Heres an ebay link, just search for HEAT SHRINK TUBE or 50mm HEAT SHRINK TUBE
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_nkw=50mm+heat+shrink+tube&_sacat=0&_odkw=heat+shrink+tube&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
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It does look good! Seems some folk use it for sealing joint on hoses too.
Oh just spotted some UV green stuff :D :wink:
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well a week on and I have given the car some good heat under the bonnet and the hose covers are still perfectly good, seems to be a winner with no problems yet found :D :D
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Thats good to know :D
Only problem with coloured engine hoses is keeping them clean :wink: :roll:
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every 6 months or begining of each spring, buy new tubing for £5 and do it all again 8)