GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Before anyone asks, no I am not planning to do/try this, but I do have a hypothetical question.I really like the Vibe's front end. The double kidney grills really make it stand out IMO. But I like the Matrix rear end a bit better, esthetically.Will a Vibe front clip (minus the doghouse) fit on a Matrix? Are they a direct bolt-on?Has anyone tried or succeeded doing this, or visa-verse?

I would assume so, if the fender lines matched up. Especially considering there is only one Chilton manual for the Vibe and Matrix, so they have to be THAT similar (OT, Frosty Jake is on the Chilton manual's cover). But it may look odd, since the Matrix has softer lines and no cladding. I actually had the idea of taking a Vibe front end and putting it on a Corolla if I ended up getting a Corolla. But now I realized it most certainly would not line up, due to the Vibe's extra height.Then again, maybe all cars on this platform (is there even a proper name for it? GM has names like Gamma or Epsilon, but what about the family stemming from the Corolla?) are modular, and you can mix-and-match parts, namely, they'll bolt-on to any other car in the family. EDIT: the platform is called an M-body, and GMI calls it a truck platform

you'd have to take some damn fine measurements... or borrow someones Matrix and do a little test fit swap of parts!

I would think that the framework mounting points would be the same, but I don't think the doors are the same, so likely the fender wouldn't be the same. However, if the Vibe fender would bolt on and was wider, it might look kinda cool, like some of those widebody racers that bumped out the fenders for wider tires and then left a big gap for cooling air to exit from the brakes.

Okay, after doing an exacting analysis....well, fine, I went to discounttire.com and used their "see wheels on your car" feature to print out side views of the first gen Vibe and Matrix.It looks to me like the front clips might be interchangeable. I set the pics over each other and traced some of the body points - the leading door edge, the a-pillar seam where it meets the fender and the fender line coming off the window, and the belt line along the bottom of the driver's window - and they seem to match up perfectly.Still, the widths of some of the body contours might not match up. Would be an interesting thing to try!(P.S. I love the Chrysler 300 front clips I've seen grafted on to Dodge Magnums).

Ive seen this done to a Firebird...Camaro front...

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Firebird rear end...

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Quote, originally posted by VforVIBE »Firebird rear end...The backyard of which the FireCamaro sits, looks like in a town (or City) near me. In New Jersey.I am wondering which VIN number he is going by? Not to mention the title (car name) on the registration.

The nose clip might be close, but you would also need to change the headlights and hood too.

Quote, originally posted by Ivibe »The backyard of which the FireCamaro sits, looks like in a town (or City) near me. In New Jersey.Good eye, the owner lives in Vailsburg, NJ not too far from Seton Hall College, about less than 10 miles down the road.

Quote, originally posted by VforVIBE »Good eye, the owner lives in Vailsburg, NJ not too far from Seton Hall College, about less than 10 miles down the road.I looked up the name "Vailsburg" and Google Maps locates a lot of churches in South Orange and Newark. Newark or Elizabeth were the cities that I was first thinking the FireCamaro is located. This is the first time I heard of the name "Vailsburg". The color of the plates gave the state away. The buildings gave away the location of such housing. Seton Hall U is in South Orange.Do you know the owner? or, Are you the owner now living else where?

Quote, originally posted by Ivibe »Do you know the owner? or, Are you the owner now living else where?I do not, and I am not, just saw it on another forum I'm on.http://www.thirdgen.org/techbo....html

Another forum????

Yes, and back in the '80's a friend of mine and I grafted a TR4A IRS front end onto his TR6, but we had to also cut off and use the inner fenders from the TR4. TR6= horizontal fender mounts, TR4= vertical.So from the rsponses here, no one has tried or accomplished this on a Matrix?

no ive thought the same thing though with the first gen trix/vibe and second gen trix/vibe both swapping respectively. as it looks everything should fit, the only thing i might see that could cause a problem would be the radiator cross bar and radiator itself. though it might be exactly the same.

Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »Another forum???? Yes, because the T/A doesn't fix itself.