Custom lots-of-titanium Brompton

Right, update time. Although the finish on the carbon mudguards was reasonable I decided it would be better to lacquer them, so gave them several coats of Polycote Clear, sanded them down with 1200 grit paper and then polished them up again. The finish isn't perfect - I probably should have bitten the bullet and used some proper 2k lacquer - but it's good enough. I've also ordered in the bolts I need to replace the steel bolts provided with the mudguards with titanium bolts, washers and nuts. Most of them are from the UK, but some I ended up having to order in from the US and Taiwan.

I'd already got some titanium bolts as part of my Brompfication order. For example, these bolts:

(from left to right, stem clamp bolt, stem main bolt, stem catch bolt) will be replaced with

saving an enormous 23 grams. Brompfication have also started producing a fourth bolt in titanium (the suspension block bolt) which is included in a kit with the other three bolts I already have, so I'll have to see how much the fourth bolt would cost by itself.

As well as just buying stuff in, I've also used some titanium plate I had in the scrap bin to replace little steel parts which come with the mudguard fitting kit. For example -

the mudguard stay is titanium, but the standard Brompton kit the bolt and the small retaining plate are BZP steel. So I've replaced the bolt with a titanium one, and made up a replacement retaining plate. There's also the steel reinforcing plates which go on top of the mudguards:

I've made up some titanium replacements:

resulting in a massive 6 gram saving.

Now it's time to fit the mudguards, which means fitting the brakes, and then I can fit the wheels and decide how much (if at all) the handlebars need to be chopped down by.