Titanium Mini bolts

Hello again. I placed an order yesterday. See below.

Bit of a tricky one this time round. I was kind of cornered into buying 100 at a time of the longer bolts, so I had to cut back my order by quite a bit, but I'll get the rest of the big bolts done early next year. I think it's to do with the high price of titanium at the moment.

I wasn't able to have 50bolts for the pre 1976front subframes made but I'll get it sorted. Metal prices bounce up and down from month to month.

100 x 5/16"unf24 x 5/8"long

100 ordered and this is a general bolt I've found dotted around the Mini. I've seen it used on the alternator bracket.

100 x 5/16"unf24 x 4 1/4"long

Although this type bolt didn't have that much rust on it when I took it off the Mini, I estimate there'll be 35gramme saving for 2 bolts.

100 x 5/16"UNC18 x 1" long

This is a repeat order of a very common bolt used on the Mini gearbox. I've also order

60 x 5/16"UNC18 x 3/4" long used on engine mount.

20 x 5/16"UNC18 x 7/8" long The shorter bolt on the clutch cover. I'll offer one of these and 7 others as a clutch bolt set.

100 x 5/16"UNC18 x 1 3/4"long Used on the Mini gearbox.

100 x 5/16"unf24 x 11/16"long This bolt is used on the timing cover of the A series engine and all the ones I saw were rusty so why not replace them if you're sprucing up your engine.

Nyloc nuts saga

Well the 3/8" and 7/16" titanium nyloc nuts arrived but they were in UNC thread instead of UNF. So back they went. Third time lucky I hope. They should be replaced and in with the above order, so about a month.

The 1/4" ti nyloc nuts worked fine though. I fitted them to my Mini and they were lovely. They were a particularly good idea to use on the seat hoops that are fixed to the Mini floor. They'll be exposed to the very worst of British weather.

The Phillips head titanium 1/4" countersunk door screws worked fine. I noticed they also fit the door lock receiver plate, so the Mini uses 14 in total.

There are a number of bolts used on the Mini but one day I'll have all of them replicated in titanium. I'll sell them in packs for different parts of the Mini and the hope is to keep the prices as low as possible by selling in volume.

It would be very nice to keep our Mini's until we're old and to look on them and see all the bolts still gleam as much as the day they were fitted, decades earlier.

Placing another order soon.

Hi,

I'm placing another order in the coming week. So now is the time to nudge me and tell me if you're after something in titanium, that I can mass produce.

I have to replace an order for 5/16"UNC by 1" long bolts as the first lot sold out.

I'd like to diversify a little bit from the UNC and UNF threaded fasteners and cover metric threaded fasteners too. Below is a fairing bolt I modelled from the original which is starting to bubble under the chrome. Standard weight is 11.8grammes so a titanium version will be about 7grammes. I believe this also fits the Suzuki Hayabusa as well as the RGV250SP but it'll probably fit a lot of Suzuki.

I've also been modelling a part for pressing. This is a Mini alternator bracket. I'm hoping to sell it in a set along with the alternator adjuster I already stock and the bolts that go with it.

Other stuff I've been working on is stress analysis in Solid Works. It's pretty amazing! Model the part, specify the type of metal and add loads or forces to places on the part. Then you can see where the stress is. There is a feature where you let Solid Works have a go at making a much stronger part by adding a bit more metal and it'll make several different versions and you can pick the ideal one.

I'm thinking of getting some 5/16" by 3/4"UNF24 hex head bolts made as they're used on things like the Mini engine mounts.

Also 5/16" by 4 1/8"UNF24 hex bolts for the engine bracket pictured below. Standard weight is 42gramme so a Ti version will be about 25grammes.

That's all for now and hopefully the redesigned nyloc nuts, cross drilled washers, countersunk Mini door bolts are ready in the coming week.

Oh yeah! I can get titanium parts titanium nitride (TiN) coated. It's not the cheapest process in the world but it could be good for stressed parts like wheel nuts. TiN is a super hard coating. You may have seen it on the ends of drill bits. Its bright gold. Looks very Bling! :)