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#1 basinhead

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Posted 29 March 2010 - 03:05 PM

Hi all,

I've been selling titanium clevis pins, studs and small parts for the Mini in titanium on ebay for about a year and a half and now I also have a website, which I am trading with.

Titan Classics

As you may know titanium is five times stronger than steel, does not corrode, harder than mild steel and is 40% lighter than steel. It's widely used on jet fighters, race cars and armour.
The parts are manufactured in Wolverhampton and the metal is British or from the EU.

I've converted much of my Mini to grade 5 titanium after watching new steel parts corrode within a short space of time. Even in the shelter of the garage!

The product range is expanding all the time and I'm hoping within the next month to have;
  • some large cross drilled washers for the rear subframe trunnions and front tie rods, because they look amazing and are very light.
  • Exhaust manifold studs for MPI Mini as they're 5mm longer than the studs I currently sell.
  • Titanium clutch pushrod. I currently only sell a stainless version.
  • Clutch top arm clevis pin in Ti.
I show the weight of the part and the weight saved over the existing parts. There are cheaper ways to reduce the weight of your Mini but Ti is also totally stainless. More stainless than stainless steel!


I may sell titanium head studs but they need testing properly first. Weight saving is about 200g I think (Not quite sure as I made them a while back). The spec sheet indicated they should be alright, as titanium grade 5 has a low modulus of elasticity but I'll get them on my spare engine and test them properly on the road first.

Other items I may make are rear brake adjusters in Ti or stainless because I got one stuck last year and it was nearly new. Had to remove the whole radius arm and use a Maff blowtorch and ice to get it free.

Wheel nuts. I know a hot forger able to forge Ti but I'll have to order hundreds of nuts to keep the cost down.

Rear subframe support pins in stainless (maybe Ti)
Stressed weight bearing parts will be tensile and shear tested in a testing house in Wolverhampton just to make sure they're strong enough.

If I can keep the price down I'd like to sell nut and bolts kits in Ti.

Anyway. Hope you like my stuff and if anyone knows any parts that will fly off the shelves I could have made in Ti email me and I'll see what I can do. :)

Cheers,

Rich

www.titanclassics.com

#2 GreaseMonkey

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Posted 29 March 2010 - 07:33 PM

Very nice stuff, bought some handbrake quadrant pins and cable pins from you on the weekend or Friday? They arrived today.

Thanks

Edited by GreaseMonkey, 29 March 2010 - 07:34 PM.


#3 basinhead

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Posted 29 March 2010 - 08:59 PM

Very nice stuff, bought some handbrake quadrant pins and cable pins from you on the weekend or Friday? They arrived today.

Thanks



Cool! I'm really glad you like them. :lol:

Cheers,

Rich

#4 GreaseMonkey

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Posted 29 March 2010 - 09:21 PM

Yeah thanks, it's a shame they'll be under the back of the mini getting grubby hehe

Edited by GreaseMonkey, 29 March 2010 - 09:21 PM.


#5 shaddy

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Posted 30 March 2010 - 12:05 PM

Your stuff looks very nice not badly priced by the looks of thing either,

a couple of questions for you,

do your thermostate housing studs fit mpi's,

can you make the clutch arms as well as the push rods.

do you do ti plate cut to shape with holes etc, this would be more a one off thing i'm thinking off.

#6 basinhead

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Posted 30 March 2010 - 06:46 PM

Your stuff looks very nice not badly priced by the looks of thing either,

a couple of questions for you,

do your thermostate housing studs fit mpi's,

can you make the clutch arms as well as the push rods.

do you do ti plate cut to shape with holes etc, this would be more a one off thing i'm thinking off.


Hi Shaddy,

Cheers! Yeah, I'm trying to keep the price down to reasonable levels, and the only way to do it is to have made a big run of one part.


I'm not sure if the thermostat studs will fit an MPI but they won't be long enough if there's a sandwich plate.

As for a clutch arm I've asked the engineers last year and they're quite an involved part to make. I'd be a bit concerned about the hardness of the ball on the end too. Titanium is hard but from my scratching tests it's not as hard as hardened steel so it won't last as long. It's the same issue with engine pushrods in Ti. I think I worked out you'd save about 20grammes each if made in Ti and you could make them slightly wider to reduce flex.

I'll look into cutting plate pieces of grade 2 titanium or stainless.
I'm not keen on doing one off pieces though, as it takes forever setting up and will be expensive.

If it's a common part you're thinking of though I may well model it up in Solidworks (CAD programme) and do a run of them at the engineers.

Cheers,

Rich

#7 shaddy

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Posted 30 March 2010 - 08:48 PM

rich

one part i was thinking off is the steel plate behind the timing cover, you may get some interest in them,

the custom part would be in the shape of the water pump housing i'm looking into fitting an electric water pump so need a blanking plate with a hole in the same place as the blades in the existing water pump, it would also have the addition of a mounting point to use as a extra engine steady.

drawing / designing this would not be a problem as i use Autocad on a daliy basis in my job if this helps.

will you be doing thermostate studs at any point?

andrew

#8 basinhead

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Posted 31 March 2010 - 11:20 PM

rich

one part i was thinking off is the steel plate behind the timing cover, you may get some interest in them,

the custom part would be in the shape of the water pump housing i'm looking into fitting an electric water pump so need a blanking plate with a hole in the same place as the blades in the existing water pump, it would also have the addition of a mounting point to use as a extra engine steady.

drawing / designing this would not be a problem as i use Autocad on a daliy basis in my job if this helps.

will you be doing thermostate studs at any point?

andrew


Hi Andrew,

You can get the plate behind the timing cover in aluminium already. Its really nice and extremely light. Saves about a kilo in weight. I got one from ebay for about £35 but can't remember who made them now. I think MED make a version too for about £40.

I won't be able to do the custom job to be honest as the day job has me run flat out most of the time, but there are stacks of small engineering companies around that'll run that part off. I'd say make it in stainless as you'll have to anodise aluminium and Ti may be difficult to get hold of.
Isn't there a blanking plate already out there? KAD do an electric water pump.

As for the longer thermostat studs, hopefully within the next couple of months. I've been asked about the 5mm longer exhaust manifold studs for the MPI too and I'm hoping to get a few sets made of them.

Cheers,

Rich

#9 blue blood

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Posted 01 April 2010 - 10:33 PM

Hi if you do make Wheel studs would you make a few types as i have super trax alloys and they only come in badly chromed steel and i'd love to replace them with something more sufficient!

#10 mini13

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Posted 01 April 2010 - 10:41 PM

wheel nuts is a good idea if you can get them done for a good price,

the ally timing plate are available on ebay for a seller called minimadesigns or madminidesigns, he also does great bolt kits for gearbox to block and mains,

Ti clutch arms are available from force racing, so its probably not worth looking into doing them.

#11 basinhead

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Posted 03 April 2010 - 12:11 AM

wheel nuts is a good idea if you can get them done for a good price,

the ally timing plate are available on ebay for a seller called minimadesigns or madminidesigns, he also does great bolt kits for gearbox to block and mains,

Ti clutch arms are available from force racing, so its probably not worth looking into doing them.


I'm a little unsure how to head with the wheel nuts. The wheels I've got on my car are Minilites and use those tapered nuts with a collar that has probably been press fitted on. They also have that crappy chrome cover that always falls off and a socket doesn't fit properly. I think this type of nut is quite common so quite saleable.

How many different types of Mini wheel nut are out there?

It also may be cheaper or better to get the nuts hot forged, but that may require a production run of hundreds, meaning a really big cash outlay to start with. It's worth asking about anyway.
They'll have to be tensile tested too. I know they'll be plenty strong enough but it's peace of mind all round.
I can see it being a while off before getting any made.

Hopefully next week I'll get a run of titanium clevis pins for the top of the clutch arm and possibly some 5mm longer exhaust studs for MPI Mini.

#12 mini13

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Posted 03 April 2010 - 11:05 AM

there are the early nuts which have a ball end, but iirc they are only for steelies so they are probably not worth doing.

there are one with a 45 deg angle on that will fit lots of stuff, supalites, Mpi rims, std steel's, cosmics etc,

then there are the sleeve nuts, for revo's, minilife's, split rims. etc

just normal nuts that the chrome falls of are loads of money, if you can get the price anywhere near that then you could be onto a winner.

Edited by mini13, 03 April 2010 - 11:07 AM.


#13 basinhead

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Posted 05 April 2010 - 01:37 PM

there are the early nuts which have a ball end, but iirc they are only for steelies so they are probably not worth doing.

there are one with a 45 deg angle on that will fit lots of stuff, supalites, Mpi rims, std steel's, cosmics etc,

then there are the sleeve nuts, for revo's, minilife's, split rims. etc

just normal nuts that the chrome falls of are loads of money, if you can get the price anywhere near that then you could be onto a winner.



Thanks for the info on Mini wheel nuts. I had a feeling the 45 deg ones were quite common.

Here's a picture of 2 types of nut wheel nut I'm thinking of replicating. The rusty one weighs 41.3grammes. The chrome cover is removed/fell off. My thinking is to have the nut made with a dome cap like the shiny one in the right hand side of the picture but consideration will have to be made for different length studs.

Posted Image

The chromed dome nut on the right of the picture is for my MB Racing split rims, but they're quite heavy (54grammes) and chromed which means they'll flake and rust.
My reckoning is that if you have titanium nuts and saving say 15grammes/per nuts and times that by 16 nuts saves 240grammes giving good acceleration, even more so because its revolving mass. I looked at the equation on the lightened flywheel page on Minispares but it looked too hard to work out on a bank holiday. :(


I'm seeing the engineers tomorrow to get some clutch arm top clevis pins made and some MPI exhaust manifold studs too because a chap was after a set so I may as well have a whole bar made. They're 5mm longer than the pre 90's Mini studs.

What do people think of this idea and should I get them made?
I've made 2 cross drilled washers for my Mini as the original steel washers had turned to iron ore. They fit the rear trunnions on the rear subframe and they look lovely on the Mini especially against poly bushes. They only weight 6grammes!

Posted Image

I haven't a clue how much the engineers will charge as there's a fair bit of work drilling all those holes.
Just a metre length of 35mm Ti costs £125 so it's always a gamble if the items actually sell.

Do you think people would prefer washers that aren't cross drilled and perhaps being a couple of quid cheaper?
I think the cross drilling looks really racy even if it only saves a couple of grammes. I guess I could sell both types.

Cheers,

Rich

#14 book

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Posted 07 April 2010 - 07:22 PM

Just taken delivery of a couple of items. Swift delivery. Many thanks.

One thing though, your pictures don't do the items justice. They look way cooler 'in person'. I didn't realise titanium looked that colour.

I'd definitely like a titanium mini now!

#15 shaddy

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Posted 08 April 2010 - 12:56 PM

do you or can you supply nuts that fit your products also?




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