GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Here is aa after shot of my front end. It is still the stock grille, i just had it painted to match the body color when I took my car in for some body repair. You guys can all imagine what the before shot looked like. For some reason, I can not get the before shot to load, so this is what it looks like now. Keep in mind, this is just the painted stock grille, not that cheap chicken wire stuff people use.

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I like it! What kind of paint did you use?

That looks really good! I am going to be ordering another set of grilles for mine and painting them silver as well. Now that I know what it looks like, I want to do it really soon! Thanks for the pic!

quote:I am going to be ordering another set of grilles for mine and painting them silver as well.You can order another set? What's the price? Is it hard to install?

quote:You can order another set? What's the price? Is it hard to install?Yes. I have the part numbers. Go to PartsZoneOnline and enter these numbers.88969809 - $36.44 List (Dealership gave me these prices)/$20.95 Online88969808 - Same as aboveThe two part numbers listed above are the upper grilles, left and right. The following are the lower grilles, left and right.88969807 - $38.60 List/$26.19 Online88969806 - Same as aboveThey are not hard at all to take off. I had to remove mine to install my Hella horns. There are two screws, three push locks and a total of eight clips on the front bumper that hold the top ones in. I have never removed the bottom ones. The don't seem like they would be that difficult either.

I had my body shop do it. It is the same paint as the body paint I believe, except they mixed in a plastic bonding agent, and cooked the paint to dry it rather then just letting it air dry. They said it would last a little better to stone/bug/debris impact this way. The main reason I had them do it was because I wanted it to match my body color. They also gave me the left over paint for use as touch up paint. Between the grill, and the massive door dings that I had (4, 2 on each side) it only took them about 3 hours to do it. That includes the baking process to dry the paint. I had my car back the same day.

Here is another pic of the grille

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and another view of the grille

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final pic of grille from farther away

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I dunno...I really like the contrast between the black and silver on my car...Though now, you have me intrigued, maybe I'll paint mine red...Anyone care to photoshop some red grilles for me so I can see what it might look like?

I did a double take (and ran out the to parking lot to make sure my car was still there) when I saw your car. Except for the grill, they look exactly the same (even the little oil change sticker in the window !!). I don't know if I like it or not. It's cool, but I also kinda like the contrast.

Very nice Pablo! It looks good with the monotone. A two-tone might not pull it off as well though.

I think that looks awesome, but i wonder if they would look okay to match other colors???? I don't know if mine would look that good in red or not.

quote:I think that looks awesome, but i wonder if they would look okay to match other colors???? I don't know if mine would look that good in red or not.This is where that photo shop request that I think Raging made would come in handy... Does anyone out there want to help us out with the other colors? I think we all know what a body colored grill will look like on the Abyss Vibe (duh!)

I'll get working on the other colors... unless someone else does it before me. I might not get it done before this evening.

how much did it cost you just to paint the grille.

quote:how much did it cost you just to paint the grille.It was 100 bucks flat. They gave me a really good price since I'm a repeat customer. I think it was the 3rd time I've taken my cars there (2 times with the old sunfire). They did some repair work to those little plastic strips down the middle of the door too, so that was most of the cost. They were dented up pretty bad, so they smoothed them out and repainted those as well. If you wanted to get yours done, it wouldn't be too far from your place, maybe like 30 minutes. I can call them and see how much they would charge ya.

quote:Though now, you have me intrigued, maybe I'll paint mine red...I was planning on painting my grill red to match my color scheme: silver and red exterior, graphite, red, and chrom interior.now this inspires me a little more to do it.

quote:how much did it cost you just to paint the grille.It was 100 bucks flat. They gave me a really good price since I'm a repeat customer. I think it was the 3rd time I've taken my cars there (2 times with the old sunfire). They did some repair work to those little plastic strips down the middle of the door too, so that was most of the cost. They were dented up pretty bad, so they smoothed them out and repainted those as well. If you wanted to get yours done, it wouldn't be too far from your place, maybe like 30 minutes. I can call them and see how much they would charge ya.yeah we really need to put our heads together and do some things since we are so close to each other I wouldn't mind having another "tricked" Vibe member as a mod partner.

I want to paint my grilles....was initally thinking yellow to go with my yellow accents on the Neptune...I think though it may look too ricery. I'm aiming for silver...maybe. Or Blue, but it wouldn't really show up.Ugh....Indecision may or may not be my problem!!

Well Ragingfish, since you asked...I borrowed your Cardomain photo to do the color change. I will say, it would be an interesting color...

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quote:I want to paint my grilles....was initally thinking yellow to go with my yellow accents on the Neptune...I think though it may look too ricery.That's funny you say that. I think it would look great if your accents are all yellow. I decided to go with Silver and red colors for both outside and inside. As for Ricey, I think you need an aluminum wing to complete that I thought it funny to know it's really rice inside, so I got plates that say RIZRKT just to make a laugh and rib some of the ricers here in Alaska. I think I'll need to lower it, add a lot more stickers and such, an aluminum wing, and possibly a cf hood to complete the picture. Or not. I saw some pics of your ride and it looks really nice.

I think I would go a different route, paint the grill to match the car and use a red neon light inside the bumper so the light would come out the grills. Or even the lightning bolt neonlight in each grill. The newest neons can brighten and fade the amount of light to match the rev of the engine.

hmm... that's a good idea. wouldn't be too expensive to do you think? I'll have to consider that.You could also leave the grill stock for that matter and do the same thing.

Man Oh Man, does that look great, you have great taste.

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Here's another

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And one more

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millster, that's awesome, thanks so much...that looks so much different than i thought it would...interesting thing to consider...thanks again dude, you're awesome.

OK, two more done (combined into one image for posting convenience). This time at CaCathy13's request. One in yellow and one in silver. Cathy, I borrowed one of your pictures from your webpage. I was going to use one that showed the calipers too, but I couldn't find one with enough definition on the grill to have it look like more than a colored mass. I had a little trouble with the lower grills. The radiator behind it took on some of the color too. It looks a little funny, but I think it gets the idea across.For the rest of you, I'll work on the rest of the colors as I get time. However, if you have a request, feel free to e-mail. Also, if you have photos you don't mind me using...

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The yellow is very cool...

Yes I have a Abyss GT and I am going yellow and Calipers and possible the grill. Along with these rims!

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How did you do that? That looks sweet! I don't have a scanner to scan a pic of my Vibe, but I have a two-tone base shadow! Maybe someone with a base vibe will "loan" me their picture, and you can show me mine with shadow color grille!

I can do it with my GT. It'll all look the same from the front end. As for how I did it, it's pretty simple, just creating a path around the grill, converting to a selection, creating a new layer with the portion of the photo contained in the selection, and setting a color overlay on that new layer. From there, just tweak the levels until the color looks right. It's the quick and dirty method. The drawback of course being that anything in the photo is going to change to the color of the overlay. In this case the, radiator. Oh well, we're not looking for perfection, right? Anyway, I'll get the next done hopefully tonight.

quote:I can do it with my GT. It'll all look the same from the front end. Awesome...Thanks!

Soon my girlfriends dad will be moving back to the Pontiac dealership where he worked for 20 years and be one of the head painters so i'm hoping that he can slip out a little bit of shadow vibe color