Happy Thanksgiving! So I'm about to restore the A/C system in my FD, and since it's a single turbo, the A/C system plumbing is custom and all new. I'm using reduced barrier A/C hose with beadlock fittings, so my options for completing the job are: (1) Invest in a beadlock fitting crimp tool similar to this one, OR (2) Find a relatively local shop that I can pay to crimp the hose ends on for me.

Oddly enough, I'm having a really hard time finding ANY shops nearby (Elkton, MD - near the tri-state MD/DE/PA border area) that will do this for me. There's a few industrial hydraulics shops that can do it, but only on the condition that I purchase all of my hose & fittings from them - that's a non-starter, because they want at least 2~3X the price I already paid to buy all the parts I needed online.

Does anyone know of a shop within an hour or so drive from Elkton, MD that can crimp the hoses for a reasonable fee with no additional conditions? Alternatively, does anyone have a beadlock crimper I can rent/borrow to do the 8 or so fittings I need to crimp? If so, the sizes/dies needed will be for #6, #8 and #10 Reduced Barrier hose, which have a smaller outside diameter than the Standard barrier equivalent hoses.

If I strike out of finding a shop or local guy to rent/borrow the tool from, I guess I'll be adding another special purpose tool to my collection

Cheers,
Pete

 

Tipco Technologies is the only one that I know of, however they might require that you buy the fittings/hose from them. I have purchased hoses/fittings from them, but never had them crimp anything. Hope they can work with you!

 

Thanks for the referral, I'll give them a shout. I had partial success finding a local shop - found a guy that works at a nearby NAPA in Newark, DE that can crimp hoses. I say partial success because his crimping press only does the old school A/C fittings, which have the crimp indentations running north/south lengthwise with the hose, not the east/west bead style indentations that the current beadlock style fittings use. Nonetheless, we crimped one of my #10 reduced barrier lines (largest diameter/suction line), and it looks like a very secure & leak proof crimp - hose is ON THERE and won't budge/rotate at all on the fitting. Didn't charge me for taking a gamble with it, so that was cool. Unfortunately, since my other reduced barrier lines are all smaller diameter, that's the only hose he had the dies to do.

I also found a pretty reasonably priced tool on Amazon to do the job. It's another made-in-China tool, so you get what you pay for. But based on the reviews, it looks like it's good enough for occasional A/C work. It has dies to do all the common standard & reduced barrier size beadlock fittings you would run into in auto A/C work. Here's a link:

 

Always awesome to find somebody with tools willing to help!

I am torn when buying tools from china, normally I avoid it as a plague, but have learn to use them for jobs that are a one time deal, provided it gets me the needed results. I would totally jump on those, and go to town with the project.