Rear brake line to caliper question

[cabmandone]

I have one rear caliper that is painted red so..... I decided I want to take it off, remove the red paint and put it back on either with a gray or silver paint or possibly black as I'm not one that likes the calipers to stand out. I want people looking at the wheels after I spent 3 days polishing them.

My question is, the backs calipers have solid lines connecting them from the caliper as seen in the picture. I can't believe that is original as it makes changing brakes really difficult I'd think. Notice there is a stainless braided line that the hard line connects to. I know the P.O. installed the stainless lines. Is it possible he did things backwards as the stainless lines are flexible. Should I get new flex lines to connect from the stainless to the calipers?

Thanks for any help.

[cabmandone]

Forgot to post the pic of the line. Sorry!

[brighton911]

Nope, that is way it is. And yes, it certainly does make it more difficult to remove a caliper. To avoid brake fluid loss while disconnected, I put a rubber cap on the steel line. That way, when you bleed, you will only have to worry about getting air out of the caliper.

[chrisbruck]

Yup, that's the factory way you got.

You need to pull out the spring clip in the fitting where the hard line connects to the flex line. The hole is big enough to push the hard line connection in to help with wiggling the caliper out without damaging the solid line. Since you are disconnecting the line I would undo it at the caliper and then move the line out of the way. The flex line farther back will allow this pretty easily.

[cabmandone]

What genius though of this and then thought Yeah, that's a good idea.

Is there a rubber line mod or a braided flex line mod I could do so I don't have to bleed every time I want to do brakes?

[chrisbruck]

The only time you'd need to open the brake line is if you are completely pulling off the caliper to work on it at a bench. Pad changes are trivial and don't require the caliper to be touched. Rear rotor changes can be done by pulling the spring clip at the brake line, removing the caliper bolts and carefully finagling the the brake line back though the bracket hole while still attached to the caliper until out of the way. Not ideal but simple enough after you've done it once.