It's not just mine, the one a few posts back has the same look as mine with regards to the rear wheel in the well arch. Closer to the front than the back.

 

I did notice that...turns out I need new rear upper control arms. The alignment shop only mentioned the front uppers when I took it in originally for new tires and alignment. I'm replacing the rears (uppers and lowers) this weekend. I'll post another pic if the rear tires look more centered after this final alignment.

As an aside, how common of an replacement are the rear lower controls arms? Reading through the forum, these don't come up that often - mostly just the rear uppers and front lowers. Seems like the rear lowers last longer from a wear and tear perspective.

 

I finally got to the rear upper control arms - I had to cut the forward bolts off. As a result of the sawzall vibrations the rusty rear brakes lines developed a leak in the usual spot where it attaches to the plastic clips just beyond the wheel well. It was obviously a matter of time until this happened.

I purchased the LR rear brake line repair kits - anyone have any experience doing this repair? Looks like I just have to drop the exhaust at the resonator box under the driver side door to gain access to the brake lines.

 

If you mean the full line kit, pretty sure they dont fit unless you remove the body from frame. Its been discussed before. Most just go with a copper/nickel alloy and DIY new lines. They material bends easily but the factory lines are steel or such and do not bend at all, which is why they dont snake through.

 

I purchased the rear brake line kit LR056967and LR056968. It's not very clear if it's a full line kit or just enough to get to an accessible area by the drive side door. Either way, I plan on splicing near the driver side door.

 

I dont think the kit reaches that far up, does it? I thought it was to the rear door area. Best to measure really well, cut way less off that you need until the new section is in place. If you pull this off without removing the body, describe how you did it. It may be possible, but I have not heard it being done. I looked into it because I like factory/OEM stuff but ended up with soft copper tube. You will want to order all new soft lines too. Up front and rear. The rears have two soft lines per side and one shorter metal section. You will want brake line clips too. EJP7813 Also when I did mine, I picked up an assortment of plastic brake line holder from Atlantic British. ANR1864, bought 6 and ANR1864, bought just 1. Cheap if needed, they like to fall apart.

 

Reading through the tech service bulletin it seems like I should be able to do this with the body on. It does mention capturing the rear refrigerant, so it may require disconnecting some AC lines to snake it in place.

To be fair, I haven’t found any posts on this or other forums where anyone has tried using these repair kit lines. I’m really hoping removing the exhaust and heat shields provides the clearances I need. LR Time has a good video on replacing the brake lines, but they were doing a lot of rust repair/prevention at the same time.

I did end up purchasing the metal retainer clips for the hose to hard pipe connections as well as the plastic clips. General consensus is they will all break.

good advice on the rubber hoses, might as well do those too. I assume standard copper washers are required and can be purchased from any auto parts store.

 

Yes, any copper washer will work - only needed at caliper the rest is just threaded fittings.

 

Finally getting around to posting an update. The brake line repair kit was easier than expected to install. Basic procedure involves:
1) removing the exhaust from the resonator. I was able to salvage all three bolts. The exhaust hangers were very difficult to remove. I used a hydraulic jack to help hold the exhaust and take weight off the hangers
2) remove heat shield. Bolt/washers are cheap, so be careful
3) disconnect rubber hoses from control arms. Since I was replacing them I had to do this anyways
4) cut the old brake lines as far forward as possible just incase you mess up the flaring process
5) fish the old lines out. Two people make this easier. Be sure to mark the remaining lines so you know which lines goes to which side
6) replace any snapped clips. The new ones I bought from Atlantic British didn’t hold the lines as well so I added some zip ties for security
7) fish the new lines in. Two people definitely makes this easier. There is a point where the lines cross over each other by the rear AC lines. It took about 15 mins to get them fished into place. This was the easiest part of the whole process.
8) flare the new lines and attach all the fittings. I practiced on the old steel lines and could only get 1 tool to work. I tried 2 separate standard flaring tools that you can get from harbor freight and auto parts stores. Neither worked, I think the steel lines were just too hard. I recommend buying Capri Tools CP21110-SD.
9) add brake fluid and bleed. Standard bleeding procedure
10)attach heat shield and exhaust.

i did all the work with just the rear jacked up on stands. I didn’t have any clearance issues.

because I was doing my rear upper control arms at the same time, I probably have about 8 hours in the brake line portion of the work. Most of that time was spent practicing flaring and removing the exhaust. Removing the rusted exhaust bolts and hangers was very time consuming.