Larry's Titan FF Restoration

In February of 2009 I bought a Titan Formula Ford race car.  It is a Mark 6B, and was produced by Titan Cars of England in 1972.  In its heyday, it was the car to beat!  There is nothing really exceptional about the car.  It was just an excellent design, with no gimmicks.  It used the typical front radiator, Triumph front spindles, outboard suspension and Hewland Mark 8 gearbox.

This car had been in storage for several years.  It had been raced hard, and had very little maintenance, so I knew what I was in for.  To do the job properly, the car would have to be stripped down to the bare chassis, thoroughly inspected and everything repaired, replaced or overhauled.  I expected the job to take a year, with me working on it evenings and weekends.  I was optimistic...

This is the car as received.  I'm fortunate that I can bring the car right into my house (and that my wife doesn't object).  This is what I started with.

This is the front bulkhead area, and you can see that the previous owner had used some kind of heavy coating to protect the chassis.  The good news is there was no rust.  The bad news is that it took hours to remove whatever it was.

This is the chassis after the radiator, steering rack, hydraulic cylinders and front suspension were removed.  It shows that this car was really raced, and not a garage-queen.  My plan is to return it to a viable racing condition and run it in vintage sports car races...after all, it was manufactured in 1972.  That makes it eligible for almost all vintage racing organizations.

This is the left front suspension.  Again, it's not damaged, but it's worn and dirty.  The brake line doesn't fit very well.  The aluminum side panel wasn't trimmed or fit very well.  I found one shock absorber that leaked, and had it rebuilt by Bilstein.  I ordered new suspension fron England, and replaced all the rod ends and spherical bearings throughout the car.

I used to pull the engines without using a hoist.  They slide out as a unit (engine and gearbox), but the hoist makes life easier, and I'm getting lazy.  When I disassembled the engine, I found a broken piston ring, a water leak in the cylinder head, scored cylinders and more.  This meant that my machine shop was going to get some unexpected work.  Fortunately, it wasn't too bad, and the machining bill came to under $1,000.

The gearbox looked pretty good, but the selector mechanism wasn't working properly.  Fortunately, my good friend from England, Mark Dunham, is a Hewland expert.  He repaired the bearing carrier and shift mechanism and did the final inspection and reassembly for me.  The car originally had the standard Ford clutch and pressure plate.  I installed a lightened, balanced flywheel along with a 7 1/2" Tilton clutch assembly, which is a much better option than the standard unit.  It reduces the weight by around 10 pounds--and that's significant when you're talking about rotating mass.

Above shows the dry sump oil pump on the driver's right side, along with the right-hand engine mount.  There is less than 1/4" of clearance between the mount and the pump.  The oil lines are stiff and brittle, and will be replaced with more modern lines.

This is the upper frame rail, just aft of the roll hoop.  Originally these cars ran water and oil through the frame tubes as a means of saving weight.  I've never liked the idea, nor did it last very long.  This particular spot showed how the original fittings actually weakened the chassis.  I decided to remove the part and repair the chassis so that it would have more strength (and less flex) than the original.  The original chassis were brazed, not welded.

The first step was to tack-weld some additional bracing in the chassis.  Otherwise, there is a chance that the chassis will bend or spring when the old tubes are removed.  After removing the damaged piece, I cut two pieces to fit inside the tubes, and I turned them on the lathe so that their fit was snug.  After that, I cut the exterior piece (shown), and I drilled rosette holes in the old tubes and the replacement piece.  I used the turned pieces as the insides of the sleeve, and tacked them through the rosettes.  Then we welded the new piece to the original tubes.  This is a much stronger approach than just butt-welding the new tube to the old.  Some might think it is overkill, but I'm more comfortable with it this way.

Here my friend Mike is doing the welding.  We welded whenever there was no brazing present.  We repaired two other spots in the chassis in a similar manner.

Once the frame was repaired, I measured everything to ensure that it was plumb, straight and true.  Surprisingly, it was.  With the chassis complete, the next task was to install a new floor pan.

This shows the new aluminum floor pan.  What it doesn't show is the hundred or so rivits underneath the pan.  I put in about 3 rivits for every one that was originally installed.  This will stiffen the chassis significantly.  Originally these cars ran on treaded tires and bumpy tracks, and a little flex didn't much matter.  Today the tracks are generally smoother and suspensions are stiffer, so the reduction of chassis flex is important.

The original fuel cell had dried out and crumbled, so I bought a new cell.  This shot also shows that the forward braces on the roll hoop have been removed.  They weren't original to the car, and they kept me from fitting, so I removed them.

I've now got the new radiator installed and the front suspension on the car.  I've plumbed in new hydraulic cylinders, replaced a bent track rod, overhauled the steering rack and put new gaithers on, and done dozens of lesser tasks.

This shows the new radiator installation using AN fittings.  Naturally, things never fit quite right the first time.  Sometimes they fit right the second time.  This took four times.  Because I changed the fittings, they originally bumped against the steering rack.  When I moved the radiator forward, it bumped against the nose.  Eventually I had the fittings trimmed and moved the rad to a place where everything was compatible.

I got a bit ahead of myself.  Last winter I did the bodywork, and painted it in my usual yellow and black.  I should have waited until the last thing, though, since I have had to refit the body and drill numerous new holes for mounting and brackets.  Net result is that I'll do a little fiberglass work over the winter and then reshoot the paint in the spring.  I did like seeing what the car is going to look like!

It is now February 2011, and I've got the engine and gearbox installed, but I'm having to deal with plumbing issues.  In particular, I'm trying to do a better job with the water lines and the oil lines.  There isn't much space in the engine compartment, and the car originally had the oil filter mounted horizontally.  This mean that whenever you changed the filter, you dumped about 1/2 quart of oil in the engine compartment.  I'm trying to come up with a better answer, but I'm having to battle water line locations to do it.