Looking for Colored striped vacuum hoses

[Bill Balkie 24172]

 Hello ,
     I purchased a set of colored striped vacuum hoses from old air products . Tomorrow I am sending them back . The stripe is just about noticeable . In fact it disappears on some sections of the hose . I am sure they are fine hoses . Does anybody know of a vender that has good  Quality vacuum lines with clear to see colors ?

  Bill

[Scot Minesinger]

Bill,

No one really sells accurate matches for this product.  USA Parts sells a set, and the colors are vibrant, however only like, red, blue, yellow and white - limited.  There are no tan, no light green, no purple, and etc.  You can buy black hose, mix your own colors and paint the stripes if you want true authenticity.  I just buy the colored hoses and match as close as possible.  Only people super familiar with 1965-76 climate control systems will notice.  It is a good idea to replace all under hood vacuum hoses.  I did that on an original 1970 SDV with 32k miles.  After finishing it up, had to adjust idle and timing because it cured vacuum leaks did not know I had.  Car ran better too.  The under dash hoses hold up real well.

Enjoy your Cadillac 1970 is a  great year.

[Bill Balkie 24172]

Thank you Scot ,
     I will look into parts Usa . I also noticed that Caddy Daddy offers a set . Taking care of little things like this always makes your car run better . I don’t mind the tediously job of painting . But painting rubber is a challenge . I would think it would peal  off in no time .
    Thank again Scot I really appreciate it .

      Bill 

[cadillacmike68]

You can buy so called paint pens in lots of colors and just paint the stripes on new plain hoses. Sure, not completely (or even partially) "authentic" but I really don't car in this instance. I just want the CC to work correctly.

[chrisntam]

http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=134236.msg291159#msg291159

Take a look at this thread...

[Flyer]

Bill you may not be interested in painting your own lines but I'll share this with you in case you are.  I painted my own lines using plastic paint which has more flexible qualities than other paint. I took a six foot 2 x 6 and cut several different width full length grooves in it with a router. The grove depths were cut at 1/2 the diameter of the vacuum lines. I purchased the vacuum line by the roll from an auto parts store because there was significant price savings, several different sizes are required. I cleaned the vacuum line with a degreaser-RM900. Then I pressed the line into the 2 x 6 grove and dressed the sides of the vacuum line with painters tape to get the desired width paint stripe and insure a clean paint line. I painted the lines with 3 light coats to get the desired coverage. I let the lines dry 24 hours pulled the tape off and the lines out. I was pleased with the overall quality of the lines and it has held up very well over the last year. As you might expect if you bend or flex the lines a lot some horizontal cracking lines will show in the paint. This may sound like a lot of trouble but really wasn't that bad and it was much cheaper than buying the kits which don't seem to hold up that well. The key seems to be cleaning off the residue on the rubber and plastic paint.  Hugh