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I have a checklist for all the stuff I need to do to the beetle. One of the easy items that I wanted to do next was to replace the brake hoses in the front of the car. Easy to do, and they look nice, and it's tow things to check off the list.
I disconnected one end of the front right brake line, and the metal supply line kept producing fluid. It was obvious that it was actually coming from the brake fluid reservoir. I put the line back:
But that got me to thinking:
When I put the car up on jack stands in October or whatever, the final reason was because the rear brake circuit was losing enough fluid without driving the car, that the real reservoir was empty if I left the car overnight. I had assumed since I didn't need to be driving the car for it to lose fluid that the problem wasn't in any of the brake lines, that it was in the lines running from the brake fluid reservoir down to the brake master cylinder. The fact that one time fluid ran out of the frame drain hole seemed to confirm this.
However, I got a good look under the front of the car recently, and the fluid lines from the reservoir to the master cylinder don't run through the frame anywhere. Today I realized that if there's a leak in the brake lines, the system will drain even when not using the brakes. Those two facts together mean that the reason that the rear brake circuit was running dry was one of the master-cylinder-to-wheel lines in the rear brake circuit. Well, the most likely cantidate is the main front to rear metal brake line, and it does go through the frame in a spot just to the right of the driver's feet, and then runs through the passenger compartment to the back of the car.
So I think I'm going to have to replace the main front to rear brake line in the car to really be able to drive it safely. This is why I went seeking brake lines. I'll probably be lazy and attach the new brake line to the bottom of the car, which isn't pretty but it's much simpler to install.