For those of you interested in the state of the DIY Porsche wheel centers, we didn't take any particular care of them over the Summer and Fall.  They were cleaned everytime we washed the car.  Other than that, we did nothing special to keep them in good shape.   

After six months of daily driving, brake dust, and Boston weather, we were quite impressed with how well these crests held up!  We purchased extra crests expecting that we would need to replace the current ones after a season, but we don't need 'em.  Even after six months of constant use, all the current crests needed was a quick rinse and they were as good as new.  Not a bad Do-It-Yourself alternative to the OEM center crests :-)

The Boothe Design chrome bolts held up pretty nicely as well.  The only one that rusted was the one we had to mangle because of the problem we had with the soft socket.

When mounting snow tires, it is always a good idea to see if they need to be put on in a specific direction. 

These Bridgestones have a rotation direction to them as indicated by the arrow.   It is important to mount them correctly, else the tread patterns will not be in the proper orientation for optimal performance.

After being in storage for the Summer, we should have checked the tire pressure before mounting these Winter tires.  The first one we put on looked quite low on air once we dropped the jack. 

A quick check with the JNC Air showed it had only about 15 psi of pressure.  The JNC had it pumped back up to 30 psi in just a few minutes.  The pump was easy to use and ran very quietly.  We continued to be impressed with the quality of this device.

This was the first time we had a chance to use the air pump feature of the JNC Air.  Since it was the first time, we double-checked the pressure with our manual gauge...right on the button.

We got smart and decided to check all of the other tires before mounting them.  The other three had only lost a few pounds and the JNC quickly brought them back to the appropriate psi.

The ironic thing was our mailman came by just as we were finishing up.  He commented on how nice the car looked and how it must be great to be able to get in some more top-down days... since the forecast for Monday is suppose to be over 60º!

Even though it was unseasonably warm this weekend, we thought better of going into December with Summer tires on the Boxster.  Summer tires do not perform well when temperature drops below 45º (they get "stiff"), and New England storms have a habit of dropping in unexpectedly this time of year.

Also, some of you have been asking how the homemade Porsche wheel center crests and the Boothe Design chrome bolts are holding up after six months.  We decided that this be a good opportunity to give an update on those as well.

Reviews:

1. Wheel Crests

2. JNC Air

3. Boothe Design Bolts

NOTE: Click on the images for a closer look.