Shopping cart in and working!

At last, I've battled with the quirks of shopping cart software and finally got it working so it doesn't charge postage at £150 or more. Yes that did happen.
I've also paid for a new load of nuts. They are:
1/4" unf nyloc nuts
3/8"unf nyloc nuts
7/16"unf nyloc nuts
1/2"unf plain nuts.

I chose these sized because it pretty much covers all the nuts you'd normally have to undo on a Mini. I think the 3/8 ones will make the best use of Titaniums corrosion proof qualities because they're used under the wheel arches where all the road salt sits on everything.
The 7/16" nuts fasten the rear subframe and two are seen from the roadside so if your Mini looks lovely appart from the rusty fasteners this should make it look better.
Thats all for now. I think they'll be for sale in about a month.

Proper shopping cart.

I'm a bit cheesed off with Paypal because it doesn't really allow postage outside the country and I get the feeling people don't trust it outside of Ebay, so I had a look around for proper shopping cart software.

As you can probably tell I've designed and laid the Titan Classics site out myself with help from my wife who's better than me at Java.

I've decided on 'Roman Cart' for the shopping cart software. It was in the 'Creating websites for dummies' book but it was also quite easy to get my head around, been around for a few years and had good security. So people from outside Britain won't have to mail me for postage costs from now on.

I'm hoping to get the cart in soon but work at Jag has got me run off my feet at the minute.

Oh yeah! I asked for a price on a number of new items too.
After a rummage amongst my skanky old nuts and bolts I asked for a price on

Ti 1/4" nyloc nuts

Ti 3/8"unf nyloc nuts. Have you seen the state of the standard steel ones under the car? I remember I had to unscrew one once and it was so corroded it finally came off the bolt hot!

Ti 7/16" unf nyloc nuts. For the rear subframe supports and I think they're used a few times on the front.

Ti 1/2" unf plain nuts. These will just be a bit of a bling really for the engine bay, although they're constantly in the harsh conditions and are stronger than stainless.

Ti 1/4" unf x 3/4inch Phillips Countersunk Screws For the hinges on the Mini doors. They were SO difficult to remove I thought I should sell a load of these. The ends get rusty and stick solid, and as they're Phillips head the cross would get damaged. I had to drill one of them out which I guess isn't bad on a 1986 Mini. Titanium Phillips slot should last longer too as its much stronger than mild steel.

Titanium rear brake adjuster has arrived!

They've arrived!

I popped to the engineers this afternoon and picked up the finished 60 rear drum brake adjusters enough for 30 cars. They're very shiny and I can't wait to put the first 2 on my Mini.

About 2 years back I tried making some of these myself on the lathe but it proved too much hard work. I think this shape can only realistically be made on a CNC machine. There are just too many tool changes to make it worthwhile if they were made by hand.

I wouldn't be suprised if this part fits the Austin Healey and I'm sure I've seen this part on two types of Metro I've had.

Weight wise there's a 19gramme weight saving over the standard steel part but it's the corrosion resistance that makes this part so good. Rust, salt and acid won't ever affect it.
http://titanclassics.com/Ti%20rear%20brake%20adjuster.html

This is the story with the Ti rear brake adjusters.

I took measurements from a high quality brand new brake adjuster and modelled it in Solidworks.

Handed the drawing to the engineers and about a month later the parts were delivered to my door but as you can see in the picture there are no flatspots machined on the titanium part.

The skanky rusty one in the picture is off my Mini but I noticed its not the same design as the new part I bought. Maybe its a pattern part as it doesn't seem as good as the one I bought from Minispares.

The unfinished titanium adjusters went back to the engineers about 3 weeks back, so hopefully they'll be finished and ready for sale in a week or two.

Weight wise the original rusty part weighed 41grammes and the Ti part weighed 25grammes from memory. Not a massive weight saving I grant you but as it's unsprung weight it should help in a minuscule way with the suspension. :)

That and not seize solid to the point where you have to remove the whole radius arm, buy a MAFF blow torch and heat it red hot and put ice on to break the rust.

I wish I still had the photo to show you of the spanner I snapped trying to remove the brake adjuster.

Anyway, the titanium parts look gorgeous and the first 2 are going on my Mini.