Custom Center Caps for Porsche Wheel [from CAD, prototyping to finish]

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by Troy.Boxster

Damn you Fred! I'll take four.

-Troy

1 (one) kit left.

Troy, my friend, its all in your hands now bud

Originally Posted by Fliastein

Is it too late to get in on these? They are nothing short of fantastic and the price more than reasonable.

Let's see if Troy is a generous man! Mind you he is possibly 'on-duty' given the tension we have here in the Pacific. That could explain why he went quiet. Let's wait for him.

Not a 'mega huge demands' for those center caps; I've failed to exterminate the $5 Alibaba plastic champions LOL But who knows, once the guys see them on your cars, word of mouth, etc, might need to do another 25 at some point later this year, or early next. Fingers crossed bud

[Filastein]

Okay, if you end up with an extra set please PM me, I'm in.

[Troy.Boxster]

Fred,
These are fantastic and I want a set, but I can wait a bit if you think you are going to make another run in the future. I need to figure out how I'm going to get my car to Germany (my next posting!) and I don't need these getting lost in the move or removed from the car during shipment.
-Troy

[Nine8Six]

Troy! Absolutely no problem bud.

Glad you've answered quick, was about to take out my sea kayak for a little adventure. Not sure it would have worked though... approaching a fully loaded destroyer with a nuclear submarine parked right under it... hmm

"Don't-shoot-Don't-shoot - special delivery for Troy - its-me-its me, fred"

[Terryg]

Cheers Fred, we can exchange pics!

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by Terryg

Cheers Fred, we can exchange pics!

Ahh, I already rendered those using my boxster as backplate. You go first, I'll upload right after you Below are pics that I can show right away though.

Quick Update: Already started full speed on the anodizing. Been a while since I've anodized my own parts and was hoping that the smell be different. Unfortunately it does smell exactly the same - rocket fuel :/ (NO SMOKING)



^ Some of the most advanced fixture ever built. A spring clip! Made out of medical grade 2 Titanium though... hence the weird purples and bronzes shades




^ Type II anodizing here. Running amps on affordable residential electrical current. Commercial electricity (e.g. my shop location) is 3x the price in Shanghai. Things you learn in China includes how and where to 'cheap out and cut corners' lolll




^ Ran a few batch of those centers. Clear anodized first then we'll move to the colors. A batch of 20x like these takes aprox 15min.




^ Rinsing in distilled water to avoid minerals to be trapped in the open pores of the anodized layer (the oxidation layer its called). One drop of tap water and that part is destroyed (bad stains, very very bad stains!)

.


^ Now that is not preety at all. But it is what it is; "boiling H2O". To seal the part after anodizing we normally boil them for about 15min and dip them into cold water. It closes the open pores of the oxidation (sealing). Some prefer chemicals sealant (1min) but most avoid - nasty stuff and it never works anyway




^ Here I think we can see what I meant by getting rid of that silly shine. Left is not anodized, right is. Results are phenomenal... the very same classic Porsche aluminum style (mostly found in interiors though!). A tad better than having DVD'like rotating reflections on your wheels anyway LOL

Next: Clear coating of the badges, anodizing centers + colors and main caps. Lots of work but all quick and easy to do (so I wish)

[JayG]

F'in beautiful !!

[fridsten]

[njbray]

It's great seeing how these things are designed and manufactured!
How did people make stuff like this before CAD and CNC?

[Terryg]

Will do my best to post some as soon as I get the caps fitted

[Jamesp]

Nine8six - If you do these again I'm first in line (unless someone has already beaten me to it!). 15 yrs from now when these cars are collectable (and they will be), having Fred's bits attached to them will be a market raiser.

[fridsten]

Fred, have you seen these?
PORSCHE ALUMINUM CENTER LOCK CENTER CAP | eBay

[steved0x]

Originally Posted by fridsten

Fred, have you seen these?
PORSCHE ALUMINUM CENTER LOCK CENTER CAP | eBay

Is right. Fred I feel like paid too little for yours after seeing these other ones. Where can I PayPal some extra $$$ to, just because yours are sooooooooo much better than whatever those are*



*If whoever made those eBay ones is on here, sorry they are better than what I could make...

[oldskool73]

Gotta love these ones too, they even ripped off Fred's 'GT Collection' script... Sport Style Wheel Hub Center Cap Fashion Tire Center Cover For Porsche Red

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by Jamesp

Nine8six - If you do these again I'm first in line (unless someone has already beaten me to it!). 15 yrs from now when these cars are collectable (and they will be), having Fred's bits attached to them will be a market raiser.

Hey Jim, liked your vid about the air horn btw... was L-OL when I saw that the other day. Purposeful mod indeed, love it

I'm getting the compliment but you really think those roadsters will gain value? In fact mine being the only one left in China, or one that works and look 'half' decent anyway, is worth $20~25k today. Occasionally getting offers for it but never came to mind to sell... whats the point, I'll have to buy another one the following weekend :/ Can't live without a topless car - roadster until the end-of-the-world brother!

Originally Posted by fridsten

Fred, have you seen these?
PORSCHE ALUMINUM CENTER LOCK CENTER CAP | eBay

Nope, never seen this one. I like how creative this guy is RE the adapter, not bad not bad! Design is not all that bad also, kinda like them, affordable for sure (he must have made a thousand of those!).

I am speechless at the fact that this item w/ TM sells on eBay however. I'm so out these days

Originally Posted by oldskool73

Gotta love these ones too, they even ripped off Fred's 'GT Collection' script... Sport Style Wheel Hub Center Cap Fashion Tire Center Cover For Porsche Red

I could pull 1,000+ eBay listings (easy) with "my" copied racing motorcycle adjustable rearset designs, and many other things we've done for the bike mosport industry back in the years. As any other things that I do here in Shanghai, expect those to land on those sites eventually. Nothing you and I can do about this, our China friends are experts for that.

About a year ago I spoke to a seller here about those CGT style caps and asked how long it would take to get an order of 400x caps. He goes "3 days - we already have them in stock" LOL So you see, they just make 10,000 units and sell-sell-sell. Can't possibly comment about "quality" publicly here on the forum but if you or others plan on buying, please PM me first.


Quick Update:

Anodizing completed. One huge problem however, they are soooo beautiful I'm having a hard time just thinking about letting those things goes out in the mail.

I'll be doing laser work on them this weekend. That is going to be relaxing because the laser machine was recently relocated in my study room upstairs (got a Harman Kardon HI-FI in that room). Time to listen my old 80's 90's trash metal albums

Running LATE guys, my apologies.






^ Dare anyone on eBay or ChinaEcommerce to try to meet me "half" way on those LOL That is 'real' precision and worthy of the P brand. Using imported quality dye with a minimum 10years flash-point also - not the cheap local stuff that fades in the sun (UV) after a weekend or two

[Nine8Six]

Here goes one set I've ordered from a shop who claimed these were the 'authentic' CGT caps (whatever that means LOL). Even funnier, in their listing/description they say it was "designed by a famous German Engineer" (in Chinese). That was purchased up on Toabao.com and advertised as "Exotic Flame Red" (hehehe)

We got to love our friends from China Give'em some hope fellas



^ NO PhotoShop, straight out of the DSLR as-is

[soxfan1966]

Sorry for the delay, I think you ate right - sticking with the Porsche logo makes sense. And I think the red ones will go with the red calipers on my S perfectly.

I hope there is still a set left for me, was going to put the order in this morning.

[Terryg]

Has anyone heard from Fred, it seems a while since I paid for these and have heard nothing.

[fridsten]

Originally Posted by Terryg

Has anyone heard from Fred, it seems a while since I paid for these and have heard nothing.

I was just wondering the same. I hope he's alright.

[Nine8Six]

Fred is busy doing Projectors for you fellas well, trying to anyway... got my big sister in town for the whole week so it's eating, eating, and eating for us here. She leaves on Sat morning so I'll get back to my gym habit right after :0

Got all your tracking numbers in hands already so hopefully this will be entered into the system this week. Shipping out to you guys in a few days!!!!!!!!!

ps; few fellas here in SH has them installed on their pcar already. Got them all out and packaged last Saturday only (what a pain those caps lolll)

(pics to follow... not on the PC atm)