help... me

[P-Fernandez]

wel just like one of our fellow members made the foglight covers, and is selling them. I want you to give me ideas, on something simple i coud do, and that you would be intrested in buying. My vibe needs alto of stuff to be done to it.. so by selling a product, i could start to "pimp it out"... please give me your ideas.THIS Is about giving me deas of simple products i can make & sell... i added one choice.add your choice if you want, or vote if you ike an idea, and would prbly buy it. thanks

[Mavrik]

I'm all about the rims and suspension myself.

[P-Fernandez]

im sayin, give me ideas, of something simple i can make and sell, so i can get money to fix up the vibe..

[Vibr8tr]

It's not simple, but maybe if you can take a look at the threads we have about the speedo cluster. I know that is one thing every one would kill for but no one can get. It has been looked into and there is not much faith that it can ever be done without cashing in our life savings, but if you want something to look into, search out a few of those threads. Thanks, and good luck, I know if you can ge something cool going, you will ahve people behind you here.

[ToolGuy]

I say possibly make grill inserts... Find the grill material in sheets, rolls or however, cut and finish each piece off nicely.Make a kit of four pieces and try selling them. If you can come up with some different materials/designs then what is already sold, yours should be a hit! Good luck and you are only limited by your imagination!

[Mrizzle05]

find a way to make license plate frames with genvibe or VIBEGT or VIBE and make fonts and colors... sell them and $$$. your a baller!

[ballrub]

Quote, originally posted by P-Fernandez »im sayin, give me ideas, of something simple i can make and sell, so i can get money to fix up the vibe..Not to throw a wet blanket on your enthusiam (which is good!), and as much as I would like to help out a fellow viber...if I could think up something that was easy to make and sell for our Vibes and make some profit at it, I'd be doing it myself! And I've been in the aftermarket for almost 30 years now!Unfortunately, anything that isn't a silly foo-foo universal item would have to be produced in large enough quantities to keep the cost down enough to where a potential Vibe owner would say "that's a great price...I want one!" Just like anything today, you will have to spend a lot of money to tool up for a product, and set up how you plan to market and sell it! Anything too simple which uses easily readily available parts, can be done by the owner of the car themselves!As an example, here's what would be needed for some of the ideas already suggested:Speedo Cluster: Would require some cad-cam engineering to come up with a new design that would fit in the stock cluster's place--or sourcing and buying the cluster housing and hand design the overlay, would require sourcing and buying of the plastic wiring, connectors and other hardware, sourcing and buying of the lighting system for it, sourcing and buying the packaging for it, a place and a person (or persons) to assemble it, how to promote and market the product, a secure way of getting paid for the product, and somebodies got to ship it and customer service!Grill Inserts: Would have to source and buy the new material used for the grills in large quantities, would require cutting out template for each grill (either by hand, or invest in a die-cutter), possibly even have to paint inserts, plus the promoting of, marketing of, getting paid, shipping, etc...Headlight Eyelids: Would have to source and buy large quantities of vinyl (in Vibe colors), and either hand cut, or source and purchase a die cutter (to cut in volume), source and buy the packaging, plus the promoting, etc...Side Skirts: Would have to design and sculpt out of clay or bondo on the car for the plugs, make molds from the plugs, and source and buy lots of fiberglass to produce a maximum of 5 sets per day, source and buy the hardware for installation, write the instructions, packagin, and the promoting, etc...I don't mean to let all of the air out of your balloon, but if it were easy and cheap to do, somebody would have done it already! That's not to say you might come up with a truly inventive and cheap product to produce for our cars, but it would have to be something quite unique, different, and cost effective with little or no investment to fullfill your request!Of course, you shouldn't get discouraged just because an old fart smacked you in the face with a little reality! In fact, you should keep thinking of stuff that might work, and who knows, I might be kicking myself in the a** for not thinking of it first!

[drunkenmaxx]

hey ballrubber, keep in mind, todd (mivibetoolguy) has a pretty successfull product here; foglamp covers!

[ToolGuy]

Agree Ballrub on some of your points... However for the grill inserts, they would have to be hand made like my fog lamp covers. One set at a time after a prototype set was built. People would wait if they wanted for you to build theirs or just build a few at a time... Price it enough to make some profit but still sell and appeal to others pocketbooks. Material could be had by shopping home improvement stores and or Internet searches for screen or grate type suppliers... Stainless steel of course. Promoting or selling would be the same as my fog lamp covers, this site and eBay; free or very little capital investment involved. Local Vibe cruises and or other car cruises are free as well. Where there is a will, there is a way! I used to run my own car detailing business in college and put myself through college with it. I ran it all by myself in my parents garage and then moved to a local body shop. Hell, the more I talk about these grill inserts, I just may do it myself! LOL!! Like my fog lamp covers, I applied for a US Patent ($100) and business is good. Not too fast but steady and I am not doing it to get rich, nor should anyone think they will get rich doing something like this...

[P-Fernandez]

im not thikin bout getting rich, i just wanna get some money to put more stuf on the vibe ... im thinkin bout the grill inserts, i think i would do diamond i guess, but how would they go on the vibe?

[ToolGuy]

You have the right attitude on this! Mounting was the hardest part on my product too... I had think awhile and try different things at first.For grill inserts I feel some kind of screen would be your best bet. That way the screen holes would allow a fastener or thin wire or tie to fasten to the existing black grills on our Vibes. Check out the companies that already make them and see what they use too. People on the site with them should be able to tell you.Whatever you use you must thoroughly try it out on your car i.e. run it through car washes and of course wind/rain and normal driving to make sure it holds! Finish the edges off with maybe something like those door edge guards. The same stuff ghetto people put on every door edge on their entire car! Usually silver or gold! LOL!! Or if the grill material just looks good cut, leave it alone.

[PHXLavaVibe]

Quote, originally posted by P-Fernandez »im not thikin bout getting rich, i just wanna get some money to put more stuf on the vibe ... im thinkin bout the grill inserts, i think i would do diamond i guess, but how would they go on the vibe?Isn't that the whole idea behind Reasearch and Development? If you own a Vibe, and I assume you do...then just take off the front end and try different things until you find something that will work. Right now they (grills) are attached to the body by snapping into place. I have done a lot of custom work on my Vibe but it's either too complicated to explain or too easy to make for me to sell the ideas.I could easily go to my local Home Depot and pick up some sheet metal or something and fabricate my own grilles, but creating that one special design/element that other people would jump on and buy is very difficult.