Hello fellow Maritimers!

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:21 pm

Woohoo, first post of this board!

Might as well break it in by asking where everyone is from. It would be cool to find enough maritimers to be able to have meets or things like that.

So, where are you from? Moncton, NB here. Originally from Bathurst, but I moved when I finished school.

canadave · Post by **canadave** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 1:01 pm

Yayyy!!!

Thank you, mods/admins, for heeding the request and getting this Maritime forum going.

Moncton, eh? Nice...I'm down Liverpool Nova Scotia way. What dealers/mechanics do you deal with in the Moncton area, any good ones?

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:31 pm

kentville here, i have a 06 with several of the mods I found on here as well as a few i have managed out of my own mind...lol. It is good to see this section finally up and running, I agree would be nice to get enough local guys that we could meet and help all others out with tech or other questions someone may have in the area.

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:36 pm

Hey guys! New Glasgow here, have an 05 with a couple of mods, more on the way.

canadave · Post by **canadave** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:39 pm

great to see fellow bluenosers! And absolutely agreed, 07cdnvibe...it'll be great to be able to pool knowledge of local resources and maybe even do a meetup sometime if there's enough folks.

What mods have you got so far, mjowen, and what's on the way?

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:49 pm

canadave wrote:great to see fellow bluenosers! And absolutely agreed, 07cdnvibe...it'll be great to be able to pool knowledge of local resources and maybe even do a meetup sometime if there's enough folks.

What mods have you got so far, mjowen, and what's on the way?

As of right now just a Short Ram Intake and a custom engine cover, looking into Tein S-techs, a double DIN deck of somesort and over the winter I'm planning on picking up some new rims for next summer. how about yourself?

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:54 pm

i have installed a custom kicker/pioneer stereo, LED's mounted behind the door handles on the outside, LED's mounted to the bottoms of the doors, Cup holders, under the seats & dash, interior door handles, and speaker grills also lit up with LED's.I have disabled my DRL wired my driving lights to the park lights, painted my roof rails black, aluminum wheels, painted all my rear panels black and carpeted the backs of the seats and the lift up floor in the back, i have installed power window modual (rolls up window when the doors are locked). Have all windows tinted except windshield, repainted all removable dash pieces gun metal grey as well as the chrome circles around the instrument cluster. I have removed the power plug in the dash and replaced it with a digital volt meter in one side and a USB plug in the other. I think that is all but i am sure i am forgetting a couple, have had my car for 2 years and have done all the work listed above myself.

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:59 pm

Nice, great looking vibe too, what did the tint cost for you? I've been thinking about it but not 100% yet.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 4:05 pm

i buy it by 100 foot rolls and tint in my spare time to make a little extra cash but you can buy pre-cut tint on eBay for all your windows for less than 60 if you want to take that route then just find someone to put it on for you. I have the pre-cut on my front doors as i had to remove what i had put on earlier for inspection but have had no issue with it, very easy to work with as well.

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 4:27 pm

Great thanks for the tip.

canadave · Post by **canadave** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 4:32 pm

mjowen wrote:
canadave wrote:great to see fellow bluenosers! And absolutely agreed, 07cdnvibe...it'll be great to be able to pool knowledge of local resources and maybe even do a meetup sometime if there's enough folks.

What mods have you got so far, mjowen, and what's on the way?
As of right now just a Short Ram Intake and a custom engine cover, looking into Tein S-techs, a double DIN deck of somesort and over the winter I'm planning on picking up some new rims for next summer. how about yourself?

Well, to be honest, not much, because (a) I'm not much of a modder nor much mechanically inclined, and (b) it's really my wife's Vibe.

I would like, at some point, to upgrade the stock radio for sure (to a double DIN as well). Ideally I'd like something that includes GPS. I think I'd also like to get a slightly shorter antenna too, maybe something around 6-7" rather than the huge stalk coming out of it right now.

It's funny though, I've been reading through all the amazing cool mods folks on GenVibe have done, and I just shake my head in awe. Even the simplest ones might be a little beyond me--if I screwed something up, I think my wife would kill me

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 4:34 pm

your in new glasgow right, i have family in pictou that i am hoping to get up to see in the next few weeks, if i am up that way we should meet and compare notes if u are going to be around

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 4:41 pm

Yea I don't need GPS myself but I am leaning a bit towards a nice touch screen, and I've been considering a Honda antenna myself.

As for meeting up, definitely just let me know when you're heading up and I'll see if I'm going to be around.

canadave · Post by **canadave** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:08 pm

mjowen wrote:Yea I don't need GPS myself but I am leaning a bit towards a nice touch screen....

One thing I've been wondering about those touch screens...does resistive vs capacitive screens make much difference? I saw one youtube video where the guy was talking about how he finds his fingernail works best as a "stylus" with his resistive screen. I'm not so sure I'm keen on that idea, and would prefer a capacitive screen if that's truly the case; but of course those are more expensive. So I'm just wondering how hard it is to navigate a double DIN resistive screen with a fingertip

canadave · Post by **canadave** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:12 pm

07cdnvibe wrote:i have installed a custom kicker/pioneer stereo, LED's mounted behind the door handles on the outside, LED's mounted to the bottoms of the doors, Cup holders, under the seats & dash, interior door handles, and speaker grills also lit up with LED's.I have disabled my DRL wired my driving lights to the park lights, painted my roof rails black, aluminum wheels, painted all my rear panels black and carpeted the backs of the seats and the lift up floor in the back, i have installed power window modual (rolls up window when the doors are locked). Have all windows tinted except windshield, repainted all removable dash pieces gun metal grey as well as the chrome circles around the instrument cluster. I have removed the power plug in the dash and replaced it with a digital volt meter in one side and a USB plug in the other. I think that is all but i am sure i am forgetting a couple, have had my car for 2 years and have done all the work listed above myself.

Wow...that's quite the laundry list of mods!

Have you ever run into any problems with the cops re the tinted windows? I'm pretty sure NS law prohibits tinting of those front windows.

Love the sound of the LED mods. Any chance of a night photo?

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:17 pm

only issue i have had with the tint is inspection, i have gone through several road blocks and nothing said, not a great pic but i will try to get better ones, i will try to post a few more pics of things i have done as well

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:22 pm

here is my interior door panel done with my speaker and cross over mounted and lights on....

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:27 pm

I'm not too sure to be honest I'm not too experienced with touch screens, I was looking at one at future shop and it worked great with just my finger but not sure what kind of screen it had.

LEDS look great, I like that speaker, my inspections up in a few months so I think I'll hold off on the tint at least for the front windows until then.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:30 pm

thank you, yes holding off would be a good idea, i am not sure if there are any tinters up your way, i have a nephew who plays with the ricers, i can ask him if anyone up there is good and let you know if u are looking to get them done.

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:34 pm

Have a family friend who runs the Apple Auto Glass, I think he might have given it up because people kept asking to have the windshield done but I'm sure he'd do it up for me.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:39 pm

thats good, if not let me know i am sure i could find someone, or even when i am up there would only take couple hours to tint them for you

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:45 pm

Cool man sounds good, I've got to get in touch with him about some otherr stuff too so ill let you know.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:54 pm

so far i see 4 of us on here i am hoping that as time goes on we see more join, i have a couple friends with vibes i am going to try to get them to join as well.

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:36 pm

Re: Mechanics, I haven't really been to any around here yet. I've only been in town a few months, and I usually drive back up to Bathurst if I have any maintenance work to do. I've got a great mechanic up there, and he and my dad are the only ones I let touch my car

Nice Vibes all around. If you want to see my mods, you can always click the picture in my signature, it links directly to my Garage thread.

A few of my mods so far:
-Wheels
-Kenwood head unit, Polk speakers, 1800W peak Kenwood amp w/ 1200W peak 12'' Kenwood subwoofer
-Cargo area carpet, made by me
-LEDs in cupholders, footwells, dome lights, map lights, license plate lights
-Custom fog light covers to cover my cracked and dysfunctional lights
-6000k Bi-Xenon HIDs, in stock housings for now, might work at a retrofit in the future
-De-badged hatch
-Plasti-dipped Vibe badges and rear valance
-Carbon Fiber wrapped interior trim pieces
-AVS Hood deflector and vent visors
-Sickspeed shift knob
-Red LEDs in tail light midsections
-LED Reverse lights

Next on the list is window tint, painting the roof rack black and painting my brake calipers. I'd like to get my hands on the factory TRD exhaust tip as well, but those seem hard to come by.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:45 pm

very nice car nice and clean, been thinking about doing the headlight change to HID did the 6000k give you lots of light,

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:56 pm

I'm very happy with the light output, it's an improvement over halogen bulbs for sure. I'd have even better light output if I switched to a projector retrofit, but the cost is prohibitive right now. All in all, it's still an upgrade over stock, and I think it looks great. Nice clean white light, not too blue.

The install was pretty easy too, just make sure you get Bi-Xenon bulbs and a relay kit so they work well and you don't really need to worry about DRL's. If you want even better light output, you can get a 4300K kit, but I wanted the light to be whiter. I didn't pay very much for mine because a friend had a couple ballasts lying around collecting dust, so I only needed to order bulbs and a relay kit from ebay. As long as you have decent ballasts, a chinese relay and bulbs can be had for around 30$. I've had mine since April and I haven't had any problems with them. The whole thing practically cost me less that I would pay for a conventional set of replacement bulbs.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:02 pm

thats good i have been debating the ebay purchase of the lights i have already bypassed my DRLs just did not want to buy them and they not work like i wanted them too, thanks for the info about them

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:13 pm

No problem. The only thing you should pay more attention to when buying bulbs is that 20$ is a good price for them, most of the ones in that price range have the right connections and come with the wires all tucked into a piece of wire protector. Also, make sure the seller specifies that your order comes with two bulbs. I got screwed the first time around and only got one, lol. Should look like this:

As for the ballasts, I don't know how reliable the ebay ones are. They do sell kits for around 40-50$ that come with the relay, bulbs and ballasts, but having never tried those ballasts, I don't know how long they're supposed to last or how good they are. If your budget is 60-70$, you should be able to piece together a nice kit. My ballasts are RTX brand and they've worked great so far, four months and counting.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:30 pm

hey thanks, i will have to check it out in the morning,

canadave · Post by **canadave** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:04 am

Speaking as a mechanical ignoramus, can anyone enlighten me as to how easy it is to install one of those ebay HID headlight kits? I can unscrew a bolt or two, but if it came to totally disassembling the front end of the car, I'd be a little outside my comfort zone.

And I know nothing about how those types of headlight bulb installations work--I'm used to just replacing a bulb with its exact mate. Is there extra stuff that has to be done other than swapping the bulb out?

Sorry if these sound like baby questions...at 42 years old, I'm just starting to learn about car modding, can you believe it? lol This is what happens when a guy spends the first 30 years of his life without a car, and then the next 10 years without much spare money to mod with!

canadave · Post by **canadave** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:09 am

07cdnvibe wrote:so far i see 4 of us on here i am hoping that as time goes on we see more join, i have a couple friends with vibes i am going to try to get them to join as well.

That would be great! And tell them to tell THEIR friends with Vibes to join. lol I'm sure we'll get more folks in here over time, now that we have our own home. It's just a great resource for people to be able to share local info about trusted dealerships, mechanics, and installers, as well as local issues such as part ordering etc.

I know for sure there are plenty of Vibe owners out there. I live in Liverpool NS, pop. 3,000, and I've already seen a few other Vibes running around town now that I'm looking. And there's a fair number for sale on Kijiji and Autotrader.ca, so if you figure even 5% of actual owners are selling their rides at any given time, that means there's at least 200 owners out there

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:00 pm

mjowen wrote:
canadave wrote:great to see fellow bluenosers! And absolutely agreed, 07cdnvibe...it'll be great to be able to pool knowledge of local resources and maybe even do a meetup sometime if there's enough folks.

What mods have you got so far, mjowen, and what's on the way?
As of right now just a Short Ram Intake and a custom engine cover, looking into Tein S-techs, a double DIN deck of somesort and over the winter I'm planning on picking up some new rims for next summer. how about yourself?

what have you done that makes your engine cover custom, something you have done or did u buy a new one somewhere?

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 7:16 pm

About that double-DIN deck, I have a Kenwood I'm very happy with. It doesn't play DVDs or anything but it looks good and you can choose from 24 colours. Ones with touch screens seem more and more affordable now though.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 9:04 pm

Yes touch screen seems to be the way to go, I have a screen that flips out of my deck looks like single din but gives me a 7 inch screen to use

Rayven01 · Post by **Rayven01** » Mon Jul 29, 2013 5:18 am

07cdnvibe wrote:Yes touch screen seems to be the way to go, I have a screen that flips out of my deck looks like single din but gives me a 7 inch screen to use

Wow, that seems like a good idea. Probably a good theft deterrent too since the screen wouldn't be so apparent. Got a link?

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Mon Jul 29, 2013 5:40 am

07cdnvibe wrote:
mjowen wrote:
canadave wrote:great to see fellow bluenosers! And absolutely agreed, 07cdnvibe...it'll be great to be able to pool knowledge of local resources and maybe even do a meetup sometime if there's enough folks.

What mods have you got so far, mjowen, and what's on the way?
As of right now just a Short Ram Intake and a custom engine cover, looking into Tein S-techs, a double DIN deck of somesort and over the winter I'm planning on picking up some new rims for next summer. how about yourself?

what have you done that makes your engine cover custom, something you have done or did u buy a new one somewhere?

Just painted it white and added blue overlays for the lettering

mjowen · Post by **mjowen** » Mon Jul 29, 2013 5:42 am

There's a sony touchscreen on sale at futureshop this week for 200 and some, reviews are kinda iffy though

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:35 am

Rayven01 wrote:
07cdnvibe wrote:Yes touch screen seems to be the way to go, I have a screen that flips out of my deck looks like single din but gives me a 7 inch screen to use
Wow, that seems like a good idea. Probably a good theft deterrent too since the screen wouldn't be so apparent. Got a link?

here is the link to the new version of the one i have http://www.pioneerelectronics.ca/POCEN/ ... VH-X7500BT

Rayven01 · Post by **Rayven01** » Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:41 am

07cdnvibe wrote:here is the link to the new version of the one i have http://www.pioneerelectronics.ca/POCEN/ ... VH-X7500BT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

$600! Too rich for my blood, but it remains a really cool idea.

Thanks.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:46 am

ebay sells cheaper ones that work good, i have installed a few from there, you can get them with navigation etc for about 350-400 just not the high end brand names

SmAshley · Post by **SmAshley** » Tue Jul 30, 2013 7:23 pm

So I was born & grew up in Mahone Bay... Am I allowed to play in this sandbox? Even thou I live in Ontario now... pweeez oh pweezzz

canadave · Post by **canadave** » Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:06 pm

SmAshley wrote:So I was born & grew up in Mahone Bay... Am I allowed to play in this sandbox? Even thou I live in Ontario now... pweeez oh pweezzz

haha, absolutely! nothing saying "Canada - Current Maritimers" on there

Once a bluenoser, always a bluenoser! (although you'll have to accept a little ragging for being in the rat race). Welcome! I'm just down the road, in Liverpool.

07cdnvibe · Post by **07cdnvibe** » Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:52 pm

couldn't have said it better, welcome!!!!!