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.

Arrived! Nyloc nuts, Metric M8 and M6 nuts and Mini door screws

I haven't tested them on my Mini as yet but they arrived this evening and look lovely.

Here is one of 200 Mini countersunk door screws in titanium.

Standard steel weight = 4.8grammes

titanium weight = 2.6grammes

This large cross drilled washer fits at the back of the rear subframe. Looks good fitted with yellow poly bushes.

It weighs in at 6.8grammes

100 in stock

Central hole is 11.43mm or 7/16" and it's 2.5mm thick.

This is lovely and can be seen from the curbside.

I have nyloc nuts that can go with this.

This is a titanium 1/2" spring washer weighing in at 1.8grammes.

A stainless steel version weighs in at 3.3grammes.

I also have M6 nuts and M8 nuts which as you'll know are metric thread so not appropriate for the Mini but would be fine on modern classic cars and bikes.

7/16" nyloc nuts x 100

3/8" nyloc nuts x 100

1/4" nyloc nuts x 100

After testing I'll put the items for sale as soon as possible.

Nyloc nuts, Metric M8 and M6 nuts and Mini door screws

I should recieve the Nyloc nuts soon. They've been redesigned so the nylon doesn't get pushed out. They should be perfect for under the wheel arches and corrosion exposed areas of classic cars.

There are some M8 and M6 titanium nuts coming too so those will be good for people with European or Japanese cars and bikes.

There will be 200 titanium 5/16" unf countersunk screws for the Classic Mini door hinges. The steel ones are a nightmare because they rust solid from water getting at them down past the window. The titanium pozidrive head should take more abuse than steel versions which always seem to round off the cross slot.

Also I mailed about 18 diagrams for pricing on different products to be made. They were

5/16 x 3/4"long hex head bolt.

Long radiator bolt. Those 2 long bolts that bolt rad bracket to gearbox. (Steel weigh 46grammes each.)

5/16"unf x 3/4"long flanged head bolts that fit to rad side of A series engine.

5/16"unc x 1 3/8" bolt

Oil filter bracket bolts. These are big bolts so I thought there can be a lot of weight reduced with a titanium version.

Pre 1976 front subframe bolt. A nice chap from Stourbridge sent me one of his to measure and model so I'll get a run of these made.

5/16"unf x 3/4" flanged bolt and hex head bolt. These are common on the Mini

5/16"unc x 1" flanged bolt. I can't believe I sold all 100 of this bolt within about 2 weeks.

Pointy radiator bolt. Bolts from the radiator bracket to the bottom of the radiator.

1/4" x 3/4"unf hex head bolt.

clutch throw out bolt and the locknut.

1/4" brake bleed screw

I think titanium bleed screws is an excellent idea because I've snapped these before. I've also released steel ones to bleed my Mini and they've been blocked up so hopefully some of these will make for easier maintenance.

Thats all for now.

Any ideas of what fasteners you think would be good to manufacture. Give me a shout and I'll see what I can do.

Future titanium

http://www.ctemag.com/aa_pages/2010/100911_CuttingTitanium.html

Here's a linky for anyone interested in Titanium development for the 21st century.

Titanium Ti5Al5V5Mo3Cr (also known as 5553), is 20-35% stronger than titanium 6Al/4V which is the grade of titanium Titan Classics uses.

Blimey! You can haul a planet with that stuff!

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! :)

New stainless supplier and my work for Jaguar!

This morning has been great. I've found a new supplier for my stainless hose clamps, which means I can pass on MASSIVE savings to my customers. I have to buy in colossal amounts but that's what a shop does. I now sell a set of 9 Hi Grip hoses (The best you can get) for the Mini for only £15. I obviously bought the first batch way too expensive, but lesson learnt.

I can also talk about the work I did for Jaguar cars now the Jaguar concept car has been shown at the Paris Motor Show 2010. I did the artwork on the gimbal dials for the car, my good friend and colleague did the nostalgia mode for the dials. That's the artwork and animation on the screen below. It was a project that really pushed my skills and I learnt a great deal. I was closely mentored by the team and in particular my boss who had the vision and idea for the gimbal concept. A great deal of research went into the animation before reaching the finished piece.

I actually think the rotating gimbals would work quite well in a production car. Jaguar Land Rover is such an incredible company to work for. So professional and forward thinking. People seem very upbeat and happy there. I've not seen that in many places. :)

Here's a link to an article on this incredible car

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/257647/968bhp_205mph_jaguar_cx75_supercar.html

Shop update.

I should have those snazzy titanium cross drilled washers, titanium countersunk Mini door bolts, titanium spring washers for sale next week. The titanium nyloc nuts should be corrected and ready for sale in about two weeks.

As always, I fit the parts to my Mini first which means I test the products I sell.

Titanium flat shapes.

This week I replicated 2 parts for the Mini engine bay that could do with a lighter corrosion proof version. They are the bulkhead plate with one hole for heater hose and the alternator adjusting bracket.

I took the original parts off my Mini and couldn’t believe how corroded the blanking plate was. I suppose it has been slowly rusting away since 1986 and the bulkhead is a water trap.

Scanned the parts in to the PC and put into Solid Works. Modelled around the picture of the original parts, paying close attention to the measurements.

Took the Solid Works file and the titanium to an engineer shop in Redditch. It was amazing! Machines the size of houses. The chap put the files into his PC and we walked across the factory to the water cutter.

I wish I could’ve taken a photo of this machine. It’s massive! Like a shallow bath with a big moving girder holding the hoses. Lay the metal on the machine, the chap pressed some buttons and the machine was away. Firing water and abrasive at 60,000psi. The parts were cut and vibrated to deburr any rough edges. They are also accurate.

Here's the finished result

Rusty steel bulkhead plate = 60grammes

Titanium bulkhead plate = 35.9grammes

weight saving of = 24.1grammes

Rusty steel alternator adjusting bracket = 50grammes

Titanium alternator adjusting bracket = 36.5grammes

Weight saving of = 13.5 grammes

Not a massive weight saving with this part but if you notice it's 4mm titanium, 1mm thicker than the steel item, so you'll get the extra strength as well as a weight saving and corrosion proof.

Grade 1 and 2 titanium doesn't polish up as well as stainless steel but you'll never get those little rust spots you'll get on stainless. Yes, stainless steel rusts. It just takes longer.

I'll put these titanium items on sale within a week. I think I have 18 alternator adjusters and about 9 bulkhead blanking plates. They're unpolished but respond quite well to polishing. You'll never get them as shiny as stainless though.