yeah oem is the way to go if it will all go in. if the 96 lines would bolt to a 98 compressor then he would be set. I'm just thinking that if they won't then the easiest route to go is fabbing lines, or maybe just the ends that connect to the compressor. use oem except for like the last 12 inches then you could get the best of both worlds. as for fabbed lines sucking I don't know about that. what are oem lines?? just metal tubbing that was bent by someone or some machine to fit the car. the only dif is the a/c shops quality, both in the material and workmanship, also is it waranteed. you could argue oem is best always but if that were true we would leave our engines bone stock with swaps and no forced induction..... I don't see that happening

if the tips of the 96 lines bolt up to the 98 compressor the go oem.