Questions and what I did this weekend.

[rmacnamara]

So I was busy working on the Vibes this weekend!!!!

2003 Black One - Replaced the starter as that died last night, installed a new headliner, installed a new hatch to it, installed a new radio, replaced the
entire antenna assembly as it was busted.
Discovered that the gas tank is leaking when filled, looks like I will be doing a gas tank on this very soon.

This has the moon and tunes and since I did the install on the radio now it seems extremely loud. I took the aftermarket radio from the
2006 GT. Ideas on this???

Hood release cable anyone ever tackle doing the hood release cable from inside the car to the latch? I will need to do this as well.

Alloy rims, I have the 16" Alloy Rims, they are majorly oxidized from the NY salt. Any ideas on how to clean them up. They need a
painting for sure. Tips? I was thinking black?

I also think I am going to be looking at a complete new exhaust on this soon too, P0420 code and sounds like a leak near the cat.
need to get it up in the air to confirm.

[ColonelPanic]

This has the moon and tunes and since I did the install on the radio now it seems extremely loud. I took the aftermarket radio from the 2006 GT. Ideas on this???

When dealing with the Moon & Tunes / Sun & Sound amplified stereo, a speaker level converter is a must when installing an aftermarket stereo. I take it the other car did not have this option?

The factory amplifier is amplifying the already high powered signal coming from your aftermarket radio. You end up with a very high volume level and lots of white noise during silence if you don't attenuate the signals coming from your aftermarket head unit.

Something like the Scosche SLC4 will solve this. I have one installed in the '03 with Moon & Tunes and a JVC head unit. It adds bulk and a big mess of wiring but it makes it easy to get the sound adjusted to perfect levels. I have it tucked down inside the dash out of the way.

[tpollauf]

So I was busy working on the Vibes this weekend!!!!

2003 Black One - installed a new headliner

Could you elaborate on this a bit more? The 2003 Vibe Gt I recently acquired has it's headliner fabric sagging and needs reattached to the foamboard. What exactly did you do?

[vibrologist]

Alloy rims, I have the 16" Alloy Rims, they are majorly oxidized from the NY salt. Any ideas on how to clean them up. They need a
painting for sure. Tips? I was thinking black?

I did alloy rims now 2x on different cars:

2000 Ford Contour: It had a slow leak and needed frequently air on at least 2 tires. One of them was particular bad. When it needed new tires I took it to the shop to pull off the old ones and to remove the valve stems. I then sanded every corroded area where the tires sit on the rims and where the valve stem seals with the rim. I sprayed the sanded areas with Krylon Clear Acrylic. This took care of the slow leaks for at least 2 years at which point we sold the car. This was not a cosmetic fix because there was still corrosion visible.

This car was replaced with a 2010 Ford Focus. I wanted a set of winter tires and wound up buying a set of alloy rims that were heavily corroded. Again I had the valve stems removed. I found that the old clear coat could be sanded off with very rough sand paper. I followed up with finer paper. A better method was to use non-chlorine brake cleaner to dissolve the clear coat. I rubbed the softened clear coat off with Scotch-Brite scouring pads. I did not use steel wool because some steel will stick to the alloy and will rust. Then I sanded everything. I degreased the rims once more with brake cleaner and then primed them with Rustoleum automotive primer. The point is: you have to sand the corrosion off to the solid metal. Spray brake cleaner on the area you will prime and immediately follow up with primer. That way the solvents of the brake cleaner help the primer migrate into the pores of the metal. Then I spray painted them with metallic grey, Rustoleum, Industrial Grade(Wal-Mart) . It is a lot of work but it paid off.

I have to do this one more time with the rims that came on the car. Even though it has new tires there are slow leaks due to corrosion.

Which color is personal preference. If you want to sell the car use grey metallic. I would only choose from "industrial grade" colors. They are more heat resistant than the basic grade. Those brakes can radiate a lot of heat.