Boothe Design Products Preview!!!

Caymanites, behold I received my package from Ralph Boothe Design today that contains a number of their products for the Cayman . They are a site sponsor so please consider giving them your business. www.boothedesign.com I will be doing a separate installation article on a couple of these items as soon as my car arrives. Until then, here isa sneak preview of what they have to offer. Top Left if their solid brass wheel mounting tool, this goes through your wheel and holds it into place while you attach the rest of the wheel bolts. If you've never mounted a wheel on a Porsche before there are no studs to hang the wheel on, so what happens? People bang the wheel onto the red brake calipers chipping the paint off. I see it ALL the time. This tool gives you something to hang the wheels with and is a nice precaution as well as it eases installation. Top Right is their padded 19mm socket, it is actually a 24mm socket with a soft touch hard plastic spacer inside that won't scratch your lug bolts. Problem #2 I see with Porsche wheels a lot is lug bolts getting all scraped up by a regular metal socket. If you don't have a padded socket, DON'T take your wheels off until you get one! Heavy duty socket, better than my existing tools, this piece is top-notch! Next item down is a Ralph Boothe money clip, perhaps that means Ralph believes I'm going to be making lots of money! Let's hope so! Again a nice piece of jewelry which is really the theme throughout their products, they aren't cheap knock-offs these items are better than O.E.M. and are like pieces of fine jewelry. Next item are 2 of the 20 chrome lug bolts they sent me to replace the factory flat silver colored lug bolts. These babies are nicely polished, have the fitting ring lock washer on them and appear to be every bit as solid as any lug bolt I've ever held in my hand. A very nice touch for those who appreciate the little things. Last, but not least the piece de reistance! as they say in France (if I could spell it) the Boothe Design Porsche Crest (they are the only ones licensed to make these) center caps. On the left are my factory Porsche OEM center caps, the same ones you get if you order the car new or get them from your parts department for some ridiculous Porsche price. The Porsche ones are plastic, the emblems are small the colors not as bright and they simply snap in, as well as I have seen instances where the crests come unglued, yes they are glued on with the factory pieces. Now witness the Boothe Design center caps. First off, made out of METAL just like your wheels, they use locking pins to attach to the wheels so these aren't falling off, the crests are bolted onto the caps so they aren't coming unglued and look how much nicer they look! Wow! I'm sitting looking side by side and there is no comparison. Here is another pic to show both close up. Well there you have it! I strongly encourage you to visit Boothe Design today, give Ralph a call, he's a friendly sort and spice up your Cayman with some of his goodies. Hands down these are some of the best crafted items I have ever seen for an automobile, it's almost a shame to get them dirty! Oh but will they ever look nice at my next Concours! /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/thumbsup.gif Thanks Ralph Boothe! /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/thanks.gif [url]www.boothedesign.com [/url]

The one thing on the boothdesign site (under misc.) that will appeal to almost everyone here if they offer it for the Cayman is chrome muffler tips for $100 with core exchange.

I vote with Santa Fe!

I want titanium wheel bolts. I know Rennworx sells them with their wheels. It would be great if we had a source for these for our existing wheels. I don't think chrome bolts work with the painted finish of the wheels we get with the Cayman . JHellow

Thanks for the tip on the wheel caps. I'll cancel my order for $185 plastic wheel caps. I know they're poking us good for this stuff but come on...this is rediculus. Cheers

I heard from Boothe Design and they are willing to do the exhaust tip chroming for $100 plus core exchange. The only problem is that there are no cores available yet so they have an order in for exhaust tips and as soon as they get one they can chrome it and have it available for purchase and exchange. I don't know what the ETA is on exhaust tips but you might give them a call and inquire.

Are you serious? Titanium bolts are over $500 a set and they are UGLY, they don't go with anything! Once you see the dull grey bolts you get with your Cayman you'll realize how much nicer these polished chrome ones are. I'll take some photos on the car and I think you'll be surprised how well they go with the stock Cayman wheels, or especially the 19' Carrera Sport wheels.

K-Man S: I have seen the dull grey bolts that come with my wheels. I will have had the car for a week tomorrow. It is those bolts I want to replace. The Rennworx Ti bolts that I have seen have a decent polish to them and weigh nothing. Titanium does polish well if the time is taken to do that. I have a Canadian company that has done some custon titaniom rear cassettes for my road bikes that have an outstanding finish to them. They are not cheap, but wear 4 time longer than aluminum, are lighter and more rigid. I would like to see the chrome bolts on a painted wheel, preferably on the Classics. I think chrome might go well on the C Sports, given that it has a polished unpainted lip. But I would not put a chrome center cap on my Classics, so I don't think I would put chrome bolts on it either. JHellow

Sorry, forgot you had your car already and have seen the factory - less than attractive - bolts. I concur that chrome looks better on some wheels than others, I personally think the Carrera Sports, SD's and even the stock 18's are good candidates but I concur I wouldn't use a chrome center cap on a painted wheel unless there was chrome or a polished lip elsewhere on the wheel or I was going for a certain look. I can only hazard a guess at what a polished titanium bolt would cost. These Boothe Design chrome bolts almost look more like a highly polished stainless steel than a chrome, in other words the metal has some depth to it, not just blingy chrome if that makes any sense. Probably didn't come across in the picture, but these bolts are VERY nice, and of course a lot lot lot less expensive than Titanium ones. /fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/MWPX/shades_smile.gif

I looked at their web page - not clear about the chrome tips - is it $100 + $75 + original core or just $100 + original core ? Are the wheel caps shown here $90 or $95 ? I hope we get more Cayman specific parts as time goes on ( from them and other aftermarket companies )

I think it is $100 + core, but I'll ask Ralph to confirm. I believe the wheel caps shown here are the $95 ones. I look at it this way, for $185-$200 places will sell you the 4 OEM plastic ones, which equals 2 of the really nice metal ones with larger crests so you are 1/2 way there anyway, might as well go all the way for the really nice ones IMHO after seeing these. As I said previously I will shoot some install pics when my car comes in. Other than chroming the Cayman exhaust tip what other Cayman specific items would you suggest that they make? The Cayman shares a lot of parts with the 997 and Boxster but if you have something in mind I can pass it along to Ralph Boother for consideration.

I noticed that their spacer are well priced as compared to the 5mm from Porsche - has anybody here used them and what is the max that one can shift the wheel as not to impact the car's handling ? As for Cayman specific parts, one idea might be the bracket that is right behind the seats used to prevent things from falling from the shelf above the engine cover onto driver's head - maybe a new lower bracket or maybe for those that don't like the bracket a nice set of caps to cover the holes left after its removal.

I heard from Ralph, chroming is $100 plus your old Tip. Ralph charges $100 for the chroming and he charges a 'temporary' $75 as the 'core charge' until he receives your tip. If your tip is in fine shape, no gashes, deep cuts, etc. then he refunds the core charge and keeps your tip to be chromed for the next guy. He is still waiting to hear about tip availability so he can start chroming them. So ultimately the price is $100 + your old tip in good condition.

Sounds very good, and I suspect they are an outfit that will stand behind their work - K-ManS thanks for letting us know.