The standard Boxster wheel center cap is made of plastic and is about 3" in diameter.  Some owner have "upgraded" these wheel caps by hand painting the crests with the Porsche colors (gold & red or silver & red).  We wanted a more upscale look (our hands are not that steady) so we decided to see if we can find an appropriate crest and attach them to the caps.

None of the crests we purchased were sized right for what we needed.  Finally, we decided to go ahead and use a crest sized for the steering wheel.  They are a bit smaller, but we think large enough for this application.  Besides, we were able to get four of them on EBay for about $80.  A far cry from the $400 the dealers wanted for a similar set :-)

Our next problem was how to mount these crests.  Gluing them to the caps made the most sense, but since the crest is smaller then the imprint, we needed to figure out a way to either fill in or cover the imprint before mounting the crest.  For the present, we decided to go with the "cover the imprint" approach.

One of the guys here was repairing his gutters over the weekend and had some extra aluminum flashing in his car.  It was suggested that if we could cut a disc from the flashing, we could use it as a skin on top of the cap.

The sheets are big enough for two discs to be cut from one sheet.  Since there were ten of these sheets in a packet for $1.75, we could make a LOT of mistakes before it starts to get costly :-) 

The sheets are just a bit too thick for us to cut with ordinary scissors.  We could use snips, but we are pretty sure the results would look really crappy.  At this point we are not sure of the best way to properly cut the circles.  We are looking into some circle cutters at the moment.  If you have any ideas... drop us a note!

NOTE:  We got a "Brushed Silver" version for the steering wheel because it went well with the aluminum parts in our interior.  We showed that crest here just for comparison purposes.  For this Wheel Center Project, we will be using four gold crests.  The gold crests has a clear covering ...which should make keeping it clean easier.

UPDATE:  We got a tip from a PPBB reader and decided to order a bunch of blank wheel centers from FVD.  Go check out our Second Attempt at this project.  We think it is a much easier approach!

A set of Porsche Crest wheel centers would have set us back about $400.  If you are a long time RainyDayMagazine reader or you have seen our PVC Boxster speaker project, you KNOW we are NOT going to fork over that kind of cash... especially if it is something that can be made in our shop :-)

We knew there were 3rd party crests we available in parts stores and on EBay.  We just didn't know if they would be the right size.

After searching for a while, we decided the crests for the hood was too large, but the ones available for the steering wheel was good enough.  So we got a few to see if they would work for this project.

Usually we don't write things up until we are done, but we have been getting requests from you, our readers, to post the project as they progress... so here it is :-)  We'll update this project as we move forward.  Send us questions, comments and suggestion as you see fit.

Wheel Crest Project:

1. First Attempt

2. Blank wheel caps

3. Centering the crest

4. Always "Up Right" crests

Project parts:

1. Blank wheel caps: $28 for 10

2. Gold/Silver crests: $20 each

Total cost for a set of 4: $91.20

Note: we purchased the wheel caps and crests in larger quantities to save on shipping cost.  We could also have saved more money by buying the crests individually at auction on EBay, but who has time to monitor 8 auctions!  We got the first one at $20 and made an offer to buy 7 more at the same price.  You may be able to do better :-)  We were happy since the catalog price for these crests were $60 each!