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 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