My trip to Toms River, NJ (where SLP is located)

[NovaResource]

BEHOLD! The first (and only so far) SLP Ram Air hood for the Pontiac Vibe in the United States. I picked it up today and it's already installed. All that's needed is finishing and paint.Destination:The box:Out of the box:Serial Number:Made in Canada:Other goodies I purchased while there. SLP chrome badge for the driver side of the tailgate, SLP plate frame and "Ram Air" decals. I also bought an SLP hat that's not in the picture. The "SLP Performance Parts" decals came with the hood as did the hood grilles.On the car:More pics to come after the paint is applied.Thank you SLP and Unberto!

[millster]

Looks good!

[NovaResource]

The only problems so far are:- I had to add 4 washers between the hood and hinge on the passenger side and 2 on the driver side because it was too low.- the hood sits slightly too much to the passenger side. There is a very narrow body gap on the passenger side and too large of a gap on the driver side. I know the hood is centered on the car because the hook on the hood is perfectly centered with the latch on the body. I guess the driver side fender will have to get pushed in slightly and the passenger side of the hood will get trimmed slightly. Nothing a good body shop won't be able to fix.Yes, I did the installation and I am keeping the original hood in the SLP box. Total time to install: 1-hour.Travel time was 1 hour there, 1/2 there talking to Kevin Woodruff (thanks Kevin) and 1 hour back home. However, there are some little touches I want to do. One is to transfer the rubber weatherstrip that is at the leading edge of the factory hood to the R/A hood. I'll have to measure and drill out the supports for the push pins but it should fit perfectly.

[DopeVibeGT]

Looks pretty good! Cant wait to see it painted! After seeing that it only gives you 5HP, when my CAI gives me twice that, I probably wont get it. Unless I seal off the intake underneath and just use it for show.

[Sub-Vibe-R]

Hey!!! It is MADE IN CANADA!!!Looks nice, and will be enver more once painted Is the ram air fit well the stock air intake?

[NovaResource]

quote:I think you might have to change the air box or modify it a little?Yes, there is a modification to the factory air box. Basically you cut a 3" hole in the top right where the round dome is.This picture has the MAF circled but just to the right of the circle is the dome I'm talking about:SLP supplies a rubber coupling that fits into that hole and whe the hood closes, the hole in the bottom connects to the coupling. Then there is a cone filter that is used in the factory air box. Right now, I don't plan to modify the factory air box because I already have the Injen CAI cut short and the opening in the hood blows the air directly onto the CAI filter so I'm getting the best of both worlds.

[KSNeptune]

Looks great. And since you have a cladded Vibe, the unpainted hood actually looks nice as is. It compliments the cladding. Paint it car body color, and it won't be so obvious to casual onlookers. That may be what you want, but since you bothered to post several pictures, I'm guessing you'd actually prefer to show it off, and have people stop/glare/ask questions. Just some thoughts.Either way, it's a nice addition to your vibe. Thanks for posting.KSNeptune

[Pawel]

NNNice!

[red]

that hood brings back memories of the 60's and 70's!!!! the good old days of ram-air and muscle....now it really looks like a pontiac it looks great!!! is the only way to hold it down is with pins or can you use the stock latching system? can't wait for the final pictures!

[satur9]

new jersey!! i thought they had to be shipped from canada. how much did it cost all together. let us know how much the paint will cost too. damn now i dont know what to get, mabey i'll have the second one in the states.

[satur9]

oh ,and is it lighter than stock??

[DopeVibeGT]

Heck, I guess I should throw in some questions. *Is the hood fiberglass? Or is it just metal?*Does SLP actually take walk in orders?? Or did you have to set it up with them, so they knew you were coming.*Why did you buy a CAI and make it a WAI? Ok, thats it.

[NovaResource]

quote:is the only way to hold it down is with pins or can you use the stock latching system?It uses the stock latching system. A metal plate and latch is molded into the hood. No pins are needed.quote:new jersey!! i thought they had to be shipped from canada.It did come from Canada. They shipped it to the Toms River, NJ outlet and I drove there to pick it up.quote:oh ,and is it lighter than stock??Yes. I didn't weigh both but it is lighter. Not alot, 5 or 10 lbs max.quote:Is the hood fiberglass? Or is it just metal?Fiberglass with metal inserts for the latch and hinges.quote:Does SLP actually take walk in orders?I believe they are now taking orders. Call the Toms River, NJ site at 732-349-2109 and place an order. I dealt with a guy named Kevin Woodruff.quote:Or did you have to set it up with them, so they knew you were coming.I won the hood as a promotional item from SLP. They shipped it to NJ and then called me when it got there. I then setup the time to pick it up.quote:Why did you buy a CAI and make it a WAI?What is a WAI?The CAI was for a Matrix and didin't quite fit the Vibe well. Other have "made" it fit but didn't go that route. I cut it short to make it fit better. It works well but didn't get cold outside air. Now the ram air hood feeds to directly over the filter. Now I have a nice unrestrictive short-ram intake and a ram air hood to supply it cold air.

[DopeVibeGT]

Ok, I was hoping it was fiberglass. WAI is Warm air intake. It feed from air inside the engine bay, so it is considered warm air intake.

[NovaResource]

quote:WAI is Warm air intake. It feed from air inside the engine bay, so it is considered warm air intake.It actually called a "Short-Ram" intake when it places the filter in the engine compartment. If they called it a "Warm-Air Intake" or WAI, it probably wouldn't sell very well.

[Houston]

I kinda like it. Kinda don't. It almost makes for too many openings on the front of this little car and maybe looks too "busy" - reminds me of the Aztec. I might get one, but have to see one in person first. Thanks for the photos.

[DopeVibeGT]

Thats what we always refered to it as. Either WAI or short-ram. Calling it a WAI is calling it what it actually is. A tuner will know what either is.

[Vibe]

That hood will really set off the Vibe. Looks Good!HEY SLP-----Need A Detroit Area person to show another hood off for you. Here I am!!! James

[satur9]

i just went on the matrixvibe.net forums to get some more pics and info on the hood. in thier pics (silver two tone like yours) you can see that misalignment youre talking about. BUT if you read the post they posted, they brag about better than oem fitment and quality. with no bodywork or adjustment needed.hmmmmmmm?????? i know yours was free, but shelling out 650 then paint and minor bodywork and or adjustments for a hood that shouldnt need bodywork or adjusments dont seem right. you seem to be pretty close, id take it back and let THEM adjust it. or atleast inform them so they can possibly fix it for future hoods(or lower the price ) on the side note. dont you think its possible to elarge the holes in the brackets on the car to give you a little side to side adjustment or just shave off a little of the passenger side hood.make both gaps the size of the bigger gap.(which isnt that big)pushing in the fender a little might intefere with putting the stock hood back on if you ever had to. did you have to buy longer bolts to adjust for the washers? im seriously considering this hood and if they fix these small problems all the better for us paying customers!!! they changed high rev tuners for the worst these guys need to be one classic hotrods or something...dorks!!!!

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[NovaResource]

First, no 2 cars are identical and no two body panels the same. Every part has built in tolerances to allow for fit. Even if I replaced my factory hood with another factory hood the chances if it needing adjustments is very high.With that said, I adjusted the fenders yesterday and the gaps are almost identical now. I just moved the driver side fender in slightly to close up the gap and pulled the passenger side fender out slightly to open up the gap. To be honest, both fenders wanted to move in those directions. When I loosened the driver fender it actually popped in on it's own and the passenger fender popped out as if they were pulled/pushed to fit the original hood.

[Vibe]

I can vouch for what Nova said-Because I work in an automobile factory (Cadillac) and NO two cars fit the same. Strange but true. James

[satur9]

i can see no two cars fitting the same, but that not the point i was getting at. my oem hoods fits great yours probably does too. both the slp hoods in the pics look off .the more i stare at the pic the more it looks off TO ME.mabey its no big deal to some but the quote "better than oem quality... no bodywork or adjustments needed...this hood will not be returned because of inferior quality" means that it should fit a little better than it does.i'd better money that a replacmet hood from pontiac would fit better. i think thier machine was just a bit off. will they/can they fix it, i dont know.... but they definitely wont if noone says anything. i wonder if they have an email address?

[NovaResource]

Did you even rear what I wrote? Your factory hood fit's your Vibe fine. My factory hood fits my Vibe fine. However, I'll bet if we swapped hoods, both hoods would need adjustments to fit the other car. Does that mean the hood isn't of good quality? No, because it fit the other car fine. However, since your hood didn't come on my Vibe from the factory it would need adjustement. The same goes for the SLP hood.Do you seriously think the factory just pics a hood and it magically fits the next Vibe down the assembly line without adjustments? If so, you need to wake up and smell the coffee burning.

[Houston]

Don't know to whom I'm replying here, but...I was a quality control employee of Buick Motor Division for thirty-three years. During the early years quality, quite frankly, sucked. Because of this, the cars manufactured in Japan took the lead. US cars have in the last several years improved in quality so much that differences in quality between the cars manufactured in Japan and the United States are barely, if at all, discernable. The Buick LeSabre hoods of today, for example, are almost identical one to another, with any existing differences being unseen by the naked eye. Sure, every car is different, but once the fenders and front-end sheetmetal are fitted to the original hood, any other GM manufactured LeSabre hood will fit with the only needed adjustments being where the hood bolts to the hinges. If at a later time another hood is put on the car and if it is necessary to move anything else in order for the hood to fit, it's the hood that is out of spec.Off the soap-box...

[satur9]

all im saying is that when i had my sunbird i went to junkyards and taken parts of different year cavaliers that fit perfectly, including hoods.just bolted right on.was it dumb luck that tese parts happened to fit good... mabey!!!! but i still dropped a dime to slp.lets see what they say??? buy the way i dont drink coffee ,i dunk my donuts in gasoline!!!

[DopeVibeGT]

I bought a trunk from a u-pull it for the GA so I could slap my supra spoiler on it, and still have the original just incase. Anyway, it doesnt line up perfect, and there's very little adjusting you can do. So, I would have to agree, chances are, you will have to a re align your fenders 99% of the time. You may have just got very lucky.