GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Greetings, it has been many moons since my last confession. Forgive me fellow Vibers for i have sinned. I allowed an inept driver to cosmetically violate my GT just after Giftmas.We were cruising along down a 4 lane road with myself on the inside and her on the outside. She was about 3 car lengths ahead of me when she began to slow to a stop, then proceded onto the shoulder. Assuming she was stopping by her lack of signal, i proceded by only to be startled as she whipped her car right into the passenger side of my Vibe, tearing down the entire back length. My guess is she was making an illegal U-Turn and didn't look to see me there.EDIT: My new Car Domain page showcasing the ongoing repair work is here: http://www.cardomain.com/id/dj_vip3rThe insurance company found her at fault (duh) and agreed to repair my vehicle. The Claims Adjuster decided that body filler would be used to repair the damage, i did not approve. I demanded that all new sheet metal be welded in all the way down the side and a new front and rear passenger door be installed. I came to this conclusion for 2 reasons... (1) I HATE body filler, it never comes out looking right and (2) there appears to be serious structual damage at the bottom of the support structure in front of the rear wheel well, bondo can never repair the structural integrity of the unibody... Besides the shop i always go to for body work has the best welder in town on staff. I also needed a new rear passenger side aluminum wheel, the impact broke the old one. The initial damage repair estimate was $3500 USD. I will begin posting pics in the next few days showing the progression of repair. On a side note, my rental is a 2005 Chevrolet Colorado Crew Cab Z71... this is a far inferior vehicle in my opinion.And hey, go to my website and download my trance and house mixes, you know you want to.

Sorry to hear your Vibe was customized by accident! Glad you're OK though. Is your insurance company also going to reimburse you for the mega-amount of gasoline needed to run a Z-71 while your Vibe is in the shop??? j/k

Sorry to hear about this and you are right, insist on new panels. Sounds like you need new door skins.

Did you take any damage pictures? I would kill the world if that happened to mine! Just so happens I love trance so maybe I'll pay your site a visit.

Man, that sucks. Sorry to hear your luck man. When do you get your ride back now? Like 3 weeks?Inder

Sorry to hear about your missfortune. Good idea with the new sheetmetal. If the person applying the bondo doesn't do a good job it will start to crack in a year and it will have to get fixed again.

When i went to the shop today to take pics i got a chance to see the donor car chunk up close. It is interesting to see the unibody cross sectioned. It should be about a week and a half to get my car back. I am still working to post the pics, my digital camera sucks.

Ok, currently i am creating a site at CarDomain.com to display the daily repair photos. They are quite interesting.

Ok, you can visit the site now...http://www.cardomain.com/id/dj_vip3r

Ouch! That left a pretty good mark. It's cool to see the progress on the repairs. Let us know as you post more pictures of the repairs.

Will Do!

Ok, today they did some more work on the car, so i stopped by and shot some pics, the site is updated.http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/768481/1

Hey better to wait, have them replace eveything and take their time then slap it all together just to get it back to you. Better to replace the rear axle then repair it. Nice pics, it will be done soon!

Ok, yet another update, now with a poll for your time-wasting convenience! Today the guys began welding on the new stuff.http://www.cardomain.com/id/dj_vip3r

Are they going to (attempt to) use the grey cladding from the donor car? I understand (from a thread here about painting grey cladding to make 'monotone', it takes several extra steps to prepare it to hold paint.

Ouch, just saw this thread.. I haven't been able to see my Vibe since it's been in the shop (see here) as of late December.Glad to see you're OK and hopefully the Vibe will be back to your approval soon.

Ok, i have added pages for 1/24 and 1/26, and i am making one for 1/31 soon.http://www/cardomain.com/id/dj_vip3r

I know it looks like they cut a lot off, but I'm willing to be that they did it along the factory welds.I'm surprised they cut the roof rails in half when they sent that quarter of the car out. Interesting stuff! Edit: It doesn't look like the back of the front door and the front of the back door line up very well...Edit2: I wonder what it takes to swap a disc brake set up from the GT onto a base vibe. If you were closer I'd inquire as to what it'd take to purchase the old bent axle set-up from you.

Ouch. I've been there, though not quite to that extreme. Got sandwiched once, front and rear repairs. Be glad you didn't have fascia damage! GM charges an arm, a leg, your firstborn, and part of your soul for that stuff!BTW, I tried to go to your music site, but I'm getting lots of script errors. Is the problem on your end or mine? I love electronica stuff, can't get it on the radio around here.~ Z600

When i get the spare brake parts from the shop i am going to E-Bay them, so keep your eyes open if you're interested. However, to upgrade from drum to disc you will have to purchase the entire rear axle setup. Today i updated for 1/20/05. The whole side has been rought sanded to prep for new primer and all the welds are cleaned and primed now.And yes, save for one cut all the cutting was along factory spot welds to help preserve the structural integrity.

Ok, for the next couple of days, my music download site will not be up while the code is rewritten for it. Blasted experimental Linux Server.

Ok, the car is almost finished, i posted an update for the 2nd and tonight i will post for today. The car looks great! They got the new axle in and i was able to snag the old one. The available parts are listed on the repair site at Car Domain. I am also going to get the old door so if you want any of the listed parts from the site e-mail me if you are interested in purchasing any of them.Also, the downloads page for my mixes is back up.