Looking for a little advice on future mods (Noobe)

[PHXLavaVibe]

Okay, although I am a noobe to the whole vibe experience, I have already started modifying. first thing I did after buying my 2005 Lava Red Vibe was de-badging it. that helped get rid of the whole mini-van look. after that I removed all five front grilles and painted them with a dark red annodized paint. the next thing I want to tackle is the head lights. I want to paint the housings with a gloss black. what do you think? any tips? I would also like to paint the luggage racks...any ideas would be great! I like the stock wheels but i will probably replace them in the future. I have thought a few times about painting them...any ideas/tips/concerns/objections please feel free to post them. Please give me some more ideas. All are welcome

[4X4CHICHI]

you could probably exchange for '03-'04 headlights, they are black or maybe I'm not sure what you mean.

[Mavrik]

its a dull black so I guess he wants to paint them nice and shiny black.Well if your going for appearance mods, maybe lower the car on a set of TEIN springs, change out your rims for 17" P225/45R17 tires. Or invest in a body kit. I'd remove the roof racks if you have no plans of using them. You can buy kits here to fill in the holes that would be left otherwise. I may look into those myself for my Vibe. Appearance wise as well maybe short ram functional hood scoop?

[PHXLavaVibe]

Sorry to take so long...I'm at the office. As for the headlights...right now they are chrome...a little too much if you ask me. I have heard of a few people taking the lights off the car and painting the chrome housing. This is something I want to do, but I am a little nervous about it. Just the thought of putting them in the oven to seperate the clear from the housing scares me. I know I wont be able to rest until I do it though.

[PHXLavaVibe]

I have thought about taking the roof racks off. I am a little strapped for cash right now. the down payment on this vibe is killing me!Hood Scoop...how hard are they to install/paint to match. would it be easier to just buy the ram hood down the line?

[mcgusto82]

i made a functional hood scoop. not sure on how many here have also. it isn't terribly difficult to make. you just have to know what you are doing and be assertive about it. don't let it kick you (removed).from what i've seen. aftermarket hoods run around 500$.you say you are strapped for cash... then that might not be best route.i spent under 50$ making it myself. look at this thread.http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=19588

[mcgusto82]

don't go thru the trouble of messing with your headlights. post on the for sale forum that you have 05 headlights and want to trade for 03-04 headlights. i'm sure someone doesn't like their black headlights and wants chrome one's.

[scherry2]

take the side roof rails off and powder coat them. chek your yellow pages under "powdercoat" i had mine done for around $10 or 20 each. had them in 2 days.

[Merzbow]

Yeah, if you don't wanna take the racks off, scherry's look AWSOME in blue. Post a pic of them so he can see If you don't like all the chrome maybe try the grafxwerks.com corner headlight overlays. They cover the reflectors and chrome in the corner of hte headlights.If you do want the roof racks off and springs and all that jazz, a few members on here have done that. You can do a search to see pics. Here is a pic of mine with S-Techs, no roofracks, grills, the overlays I mentioned above, blah blah blah...

Attached files

[rlfreese]

yes, get rid of the racks if you dont want them, and deffinitley tein s-tech springs. I have the carbon fiber roof caps to replace the racks and Merzbow has the fiberglass ones. The carbon fiber ones are inexpensive but adhere with 3m and the fiberglass are bolt on but need be painted so It is all what you are going for. As for performance if you have an 05 go with cosmoracing CAI and magnaflow exhaust. Here is a link to my cardomain page with all the mods I have done and a pic as well if you cant veiw the page.

[PHXLavaVibe]

Thank you all for your input. I did however decide to take the risk and do my headlights. Luckily I was able to pull off the job without any complications. I had a hell of a time getting the housings seperated. I ended up baking them for about 40 min at 250 degrees. I was very nervous having them in my oven and kept checking on them every five-ten minutes. After I got them apart the rest was easy. I roughed up the chrome a little and sprayed it with a high gloss black. It turned out awesome and I am completely happy with the results. It was much easier to do than I anticipated. I wish I had a digital camera so I could take and post some pics of it

[mcgusto82]

well there you have it. another happy costumer.

[Toolman]

So I am not the only one to ever put vehicle lamps in the oven, I did it to my Starion to make custom clear tail lights. It works great loosening the epoxy, just make sure you re seal them or water WILL get in them.

[the_nite_owl]

It all depends, you looking for visual mods or functional mods?Convenience mods or performance mods?So far I have replaced the center console lid in my 05 AWD with an 03 lid so I have the extra compartment and height, added in the missing 12v outlet inside the console compartment (cheap jerks for not including it), added a Hidden Hitch tow hitch, made my own rear storage carpet cover, wired in a CompuStar remote starter/alarm, modified the 6-Disc in-dash stereo for an Aux-In plug and last but not least, modified my mirrors to be HEATED.So far we have not had a day cold enough to have frosted mirrors but they fogged up a couple times and it was cool to watch the mirror fog just dissolve when I hit the defogger switch. I still want to mod the moonroof to remove the soft-stop feature and eventually wire a shutoff for the headlamps. It's a real PITA when I am leaving the drive in with headlights on full and people getting upset with me for blinding them.I also plan on wiring my windows for one button up/down controls both within the car and by remote.Quote, originally posted by PHXLavaVibe »Okay, although I am a noobe to the whole vibe experience, I have already started modifying. first thing I did after buying my 2005 Lava Red Vibe was de-badging it. that helped get rid of the whole mini-van look. after that I removed all five front grilles and painted them with a dark red annodized paint. the next thing I want to tackle is the head lights. I want to paint the housings with a gloss black. what do you think? any tips? I would also like to paint the luggage racks...any ideas would be great! I like the stock wheels but i will probably replace them in the future. I have thought a few times about painting them...any ideas/tips/concerns/objections please feel free to post them. Please give me some more ideas. All are welcome

[PHXLavaVibe]

Well now let me see...so far I have been doing visual mods. The next step for me would be performance/functional mods...Ram CAI, functional hood scoop, Tein s-tech springs, and whatever else I can think of. I think I am going to do the Springs first though. I am anxious to see what my baby would look like with a 2" drop, or as close as I can get it.