Hey thanks again for your input, Ive just spotted
your thread here pierremcalpine thanks very much to you and ITSv40 for all that info!
I bought some Kunifer pipe and had a little play with the cheap pipe flare too kit i bought and decided it was a POS ! -too inconsistent for something as serious as brakes and the cutter was too big to get into tight spots anyway.
So i bought a mini cutter for £3 on ebay which is fantastic and tiny so fits anywhere i need to get and then bought a fantastic flare tool,
this one
which does a perfect job every time on the steel and the Kunifer pipe, I cant recommend it highly enough for anyone in the market for a 3/8 pipe tool, plus its small enough to get into tight spaces and the handle means you can get plenty of grip when working the spanners.
I also bought a new set of four stainless steel bleed nipple screws because the ones on the caplipers were rusted and knackered.
Those new parts/tools arrived last week and today I set about getting to work.
On the drivers side its a pretty short run from the ABS block the pipes all come out of along the inner wing and through a grommet into the wheel arch so after removing the engine side cover plastic that covers the ABS block and unbolting the power steering fluid bottle and moving it to one side with the pipes still connected i could just about set in there enough to remove the pipe, make up a pattern replacement with the new pipe and refit.
at the same time im replacing the flexible hoses from the hard pipes to the calipers so everything being new the refit is easy.
On the passenger side i intended to cut the pipe along the bulkhead and join the new piece in there as it was the most accessible place with good clean original pipe available, I say accessible but i still needed to remove the airfilter box, battery and battery tray and un-mount the wiring loom to get in there and get to where the pipe routed from that point through the inner wing to the wheel arch.
At this join on the bulkhead i used a back to back joiner which mean just making off a male flare and fitting on both sections and butting the together and screwing up tight (some research i had done revealed that using male to female joins where the two pieces of pipe to be joined come into connect with each other is an MOT failure in the UK so I wasn't going to risk it and bough the correct joiners to use).
Shaping the new piece of pipe from the old one i'd removed and routing it around the inner wing and through the rubber grommet and hole in the arch before making off the final flare that connects to the other new flexi pipe and i was done.
I also took the opportunity to paint whatever surface rust i could see in the inner wing and under the battery tray with Vactan rust treatment before refitting everything and that was me done for the day.
Writing it down now it reads like a 5 minute job but it did take me all day.
Tomorrow I'll tackle the back of the car and i pray for no unwelcome surprises but no doubt i'll get some.
My intention is to just replace the pipes as best i can just to get the car through the MOT and if it all looks terrible where the fuel filter is but it passes the MOT ok I'll be buying myself some time to get on and maybe drop the fuel tank and do it all properly asap.