After two more winters, much of the paint is worn off of the remaining wheels, which look like a crappy patchwork as a result. In hindsight the best way to dull the chrome look might be to sand it. I might sand them at this point to remove the remaining paint. I'm a little nervous to do this while t...

Your wheel covers look great! The title of the thread is a little misleading. As noted above, my wheel covers are indeed plastic but they are wrapped in chrome, so the Dupli-color adhesion promoter was applied to the chromium surface. The product is intended for plastic or chrome. The remaining thre...

Topcoating is worth it! All the wheel covers still look great EXCEPT this one that did not get any topcoating. The silver paint started wearing off about 6 months in, and here it is after 14 months with the shiny chrome showing through:

To complete the look, I also "dechromed" the Pontiac emblem and the fog light surrounds (in addition to the grille surround done earlier) by masking, spraying adhesion promoter, and spraying black.

Just thought I'd followup after having my mechanic replace the intermediate steering shaft. I showed them the Toyota TSB and made sure they got the right Toyota part for my AWD 2009 Vibe (45260-02120). The mechanic did the work and then came to me to say that there was absolutely no change in the ra...

Here are before and after photos showing three changes: (1) painting the wheels silver, (2) painting the front grille trim black, (3) painting the roof rack plastic boots black. IMG_1958.jpg IMG_2086.jpg IMG_1956.jpg IMG_2088.jpg Some people might prefer the "before", but I'm happy with th...

I got cold feet about painting the wheels a dark or black color, because I still like the lighter metal color and because I was concerned that scratches and wear would be more visible. So I went with silver color. Here is the wheel prepped for painting. Someone at work suggested this trick using pla...

To set the record straight, there are essentially 3 layers as shown here where the previous owner hit a curb: The alloy hub itself, the plastic wheel cover which appears to be glued to the hub, and a thin layer of aluminum/chrome foil wrapping the wheel cover: IMG_2046.jpg So what you're looking at ...

I think that's exactly what I'm going to do: remove the wheels from the car, mask off the tires, remove the center cap, and spray paint them. I'm actually looking to get away from the chrome look and go to black. My first time doing this so hope this is the right process... rough them up with 0 or 0...

Very curious! Are you sure the JWL mark doesn't refer to the underlying wheel, and that it is still clad in chrome-plastic? Based on some chips around the edge and the sound it makes when you hit it with a screwdriver it really seems like one of these plastic-clad designs: https://etools.org/Cladwhe...

I have a 2009 Vibe with what I thought were chrome or polished aluminum wheel covers. On closer inspection they appear to be plastic (?), with decorative (fake) nuts around the perimeter. I would like to remove them for painting but am confused about how to get them off without breaking. They are NO...

This thread has been very helpful, thank you to all who posted! I too was put off by the cheesy look of the 2009/2010 Vibe roof rack. I also noticed that many cars (including my wife's minivan) have black uprights with naked aluminum crossbars, and realized that it is exactly the aluminum-look plast...

OK from rereading the thread it looks like the real solution is to get a mechanic to replace the intermediate shaft with the updated Toyota part following the Toyota TSB:

• 2WD: 45260-02110
• AWD: 45260-02120

I just got a 2009 Vibe AWD with 77k miles. It's in great shape except I identified the steering shaft rattle during the test drive and talked them down to $6750. My mechanic gave me an estimate of $500 to replace the intermediate steering shaft ($350 parts/$150 labor), but based on this forum I'm no...