God_Bot

Currently in the process of refinishing my wheels because I need new tires so I figured it was a good time to do the wheels right.

Now my car had all four caps when I got it four years ago, one was only held on by one of the rivets and I quickly lost it. I've picked up a couple used ones since but I can only track down three at the moment.

I've noticed something when I was cleaning them up though, I have one with fatter style lines and a different back, it also feels lighter but that could be imagined (on the right). Are these from different years or different wheels or is it a mystery?

Anyway, here's a shot of three of the wheels, top left is 60 grit, top right is 100 and bottom hasn't been sanded yet. I took a metal finishing disk to the areas I could reach because stripping these things sucks. I still need to strip down what I can't get to on two and then sand everything out. I was originally going to paint them body color, but now I'm liking the brushed look so might just leave them at 100.

odurandina

painting black and white metal caps into COLOR CAPS would be a fun project to do while watching a game or on a snowy day.


I see what you have there. they must have tweaked them slightly or changed vendors ?

the different center caps I know about are;

early metal black and white Porsche crest.

early plastic black and white Porsche crest (with like a 3/16" indent ring that runs near the outer perimeter).

late plastic black and white Porsche crest.

"turbo," "RS," "4S" ect, black and white on metal or plastic,

early metal color Porsche crest (2nd photo below).

early plastic color Porsche crest (with the indent ring that runs near the outer perimeter).

late plastic color Porsche badge (with no indent ring) in at least 2 print styles.



watch out for counterfeit caps all over ebay !!!

here's an example of some of the fake garbage that's out there:

you can spot them by the ****ty print quality of the fine details such as "Stuttgart" on the coat of arms...

the last 2 photos are genuine Porsche....

note the fine detail and the arrangement of the cobblestones throughout the crest surface

as though set down by a mason as opposed to the cheap stamped grid on the fake cap.

.

Parawhore

I scored last month and grabbed 8 plastic center caps with the coloured badges for $10 at an Auto flea-market. They were even still in the original Porsche box.

They're off a much newer car but they fit the phone dials on my 944 so why not.

I do love the brushed look a lot. I painted mine black to match the car because it was easy, and these wheels were pretty beat up.

Cuda911

Yeah... and another problem with the knock-offs that I learned this weekend...

I bought some cheapos off of Ebay... they look fine if you are not crawling on the ground and inspecting the wheels.

But.... I did an autocross this weekend, and ALL of the caps popped out while the car was cooling down after a hard driving session. The little tabs on the back broke right off, while the car was just sitting still. It was very odd to see. Apparently, the plastic used in the cheap ones can't take excessive heat/cool cycles.

Gawernator

The cap on the right looks pretty counterfeit to me

God_Bot

I hadn't even thought of them being fake. Didn't realize center caps would warrant fakes but I should have though of it.

Either way the two that I have that look like the one on the right are ugly in the center area.

Interesting, I never thought to compare the bumps. Took this after I finished stripping them. The stones match and they all seemed to have the same primer that took three or four applications of paint stripper. (I work in a body shop and have experience stripping whole panels with this stripper and it takes two passes at most with new paints.)

mytrplseven

When I bought a set of 17" Cayman wheels from an '06 base car, the caps were cheap, black logo on silver background, plastic units. That surprised me that such a poor quality cap would come with a Porsche. Wife gifted me with a set of decent colored center caps at Christmas.

Parawhore

The caps in the last picture are the exact ones I managed to pick up. Kept the coloured emblem but painted the cap black.

Jamesr6967

My phone dials were polished , looks very nice. I'll post pic when I get to my laptop and figure how.

Mangonesailor

+1 on the brushed look. Already did the same to my car last year.

Next stop: Strip fuchs, polish lips and caps, and paint the insides.

Yes, the image is frighteningly huge... but you guys have been discussing the detail on "real" vs "fake" caps and all 4 of mine are exactly like this one. So I'll leave it in case someone wants to examine it.

God_Bot

Well I've sanded each wheel with 40, 60, 80 and 100 grit. I then followed up with a little metal polish to clean them up. Here's a photo I took of the first one before it got dark. I'm still waiting on my tires to show up but I'll share some after photos later.

I want four matching centercaps but I'm not sure what the best way to find them would be. Are there any centercaps that wouldn't fit 15" phonedials or are they all the same fitment?




I know the lug holes look terrible, they're going to get a quick coat of black along with the inside of the barrel.