GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hi again, I am considering changing the wheels out on my Base Vibe. KITT222 was nice enough to provide a picture of a 09 Red Vibe with 03-07 Alloy wheels that was taken by Thebarber. I really appreciate the picture!

Now could someone please change the color of the car from Red to White? I would really appreciate it!

THANK YOU!

Here, this was a little easier to do.



Rims are easy to 'shop on. Color change from red to white is a little difficult for me. I hope this fulfills your vision! Really stinks that the 09/10 1.8l Vibes never had an alloy wheel option.

KITT222 I owe you a high five! I LOVE THIS PICTURE! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

'shop looks great Nick! Those wheels will definitely look good on your 2009 Base BWV !

I just got the rear 5 windows tinted (18%)! I would take a picture but the car BADLY needs a wash! I will be giving it a good wash this weekend so I will have to post the pictures then!

Looking forward to seeing pictures! I hear ya about your Vibe being dirty. Both of ours desperately need baths too. Hopefully this weekend I can get both of them washed.

KITT222 wrote:Here, this was a little easier to do.



Rims are easy to 'shop on. Color change from red to white is a little difficult for me. I hope this fulfills your vision! Really stinks that the 09/10 1.8l Vibes never had an alloy wheel option.

KITT222 could you do me one more favor? Could you Shop in the following rim onto this picture? Someone has a nice set for sale on here and might consider it.

As requested! May not look totally the same, as the 17s are a bigger rim, but I couldn't make the rim too much bigger without making it look cartoonishly huge, so this is just a rough idea.




Also, for curiosity's sake, I put on some Scion TC rims.

Tell me more about this..... Scion you speak of..

Thank you by the way!

BaseWhiteVibe wrote:Tell me more about this..... Scion you speak of..

Thank you by the way!

Not a problem! First-gen Scion TC rims will go right onto the Vibes with 5x100 bolt pattern (1.8L Vibes). They're plentiful, and sometimes cheap. Craigslist would probably yield a few results.



It's an easy way to get some nice looking rims.

Can I swap the center caps out? I would love to have the Pontiac logo on it!

I see these at work all the time, I have never paid that close attention to the wheels. I will have to check them out

A few people have swapped centercaps, or put a vinyl on them with the Pontiac logo.

SHARP!

I was just browsing 2nd gen Vibes for sale in my area on Auto Trader for the heck of it. I saw this picture and immediately thought of you. It's not the greatest picture, but it's a black 2009 1.8L Base with 2003-2008 Vibe 16" wheels on it. It definitely looks pretty darn good !

Yes.... IT LOOKS AWESOME!!!

I am trying to find a set that is not pitted up, seems like that is something that happens quite a bit with these!

TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY..... I went to put air in my rough shape garbage tires (1 Goodyear Assurance 80%, 1 Goodyear Eagle 80%, 2 Fusions on par with the wear indicator! (on the Back)). Come to find out that the Goodyear Assurance is 13 years old! Went to my buddy at Discount Tire and he wouldn't even put air in it! As for the other Goodyear it was made in 08 so still "OK".

I CAN'T WAIT TO PUT NEW TIRES ON IT!

I'm really a fan of that black '09 with the alloys. If I had an 09/10 I'd for sure do that.

It might be worth it to sand them down and repaint them. Not a lot of sets are in good shape. I was checking out an '03 AWD while my Vibe was being fixed, and it had one alloy that looks terrible! Bubbling up in every spot. If I bought that car, I'd put the car on jack stands until I sanded, repainted, and clear-coated the rims. They were just awful!

At the same time, when I had the 16's on my Vibe, they were the worst in the area. So some good one must be out there... go to a dealer maybe, and ask what they'd give you to swap out the rims on a Vibe they have in stock. They could be up for a quick buck, and they wouldn't need to knock down the price.

We have a place called Detroit Wheel and Tire, (http://www.detroitwheelandtire.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). They repair and refinish wheels, I didn't really think about it but I can get my hands on some "D" quality rims and have them redo them. The question all comes down to cost!

16" Refinished
https://detroitwheelandtire.com/pontiac ... -2008.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

17" Refinished
https://detroitwheelandtire.com/pontiac ... -2008.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Keep in mind too, I don't want to mess with my speed calibration at all AND the stock tire size found on the 09 Vibe is a very popular size (205/55-16) and the price for it is VERY reasonable for any tire in that size

I would probably end up with the Michelin Defenders, My Dad and two aunts have these tires and they each have seen their fuel economy go up. Also since I know the Manager at Discount Tire I could get them for even less than that:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp ... Model=Vibe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; 1.8L&autoModClar=With OE Metal Valve Stems

Also I was looking over my garbage tires today and realized that one tire is 13 years old! The previous owner really skimped out in a lot of areas on this car and now I am making up for it!

Quite the tires. The 17's are actually cheaper, and I've found 215/50/17 to be closer to dead-on than the 205/55/16's were. Manufacturers build-in a speed difference, so you're always going slower than the speedometer says.

Would it be cheaper just to have a set refinished rather than buy a set refinished?

I will have to look into it on Monday

I am curious to hear if it would actually be cheaper to get some crappy wheels and have them re-finished than buying already re-finished ones. If that wheel place is too expensive, you could always find a powder coating place and see what they would charge to do them. Powder coating is usually pretty reasonable and they blast the wheels before powder coating them, so any damage, etc. would be taken care of. Another option is to sand the wheels down, etc. yourself and use PlastiDip on them. PlastiDip comes in many colors, including a silver that is pretty much the same as the color of most factory alloy wheels and it's cheap. Check out dipyourcar.com for more info on using PlastiDip on wheels. Or, instead of PlastiDip and for something more permanent, you could always paint them with spray paint. DupliColor has a line of wheel-specific paint, including primer, color and clear coat.

That's scary about the 13 year old tire ! We have the original Goodyear Eagle F1 A/S-C tires on our 2009 GTs and I am planning on replacing them when tax refund time rolls around again because they're starting to show signs of wear due to age i.e. slight cracking, etc. They're just under 5 years old and only have probably about 30,000 miles on them, so I can't even imagine what a 13 year old tire would look like .

The previous owner skimping out on things was unfortunate. My friend from Discount Tire wants to display it. Mostly because it doesn't look too bad, some side cracking but not too bad. This one is the eagle the assurance on the other side is from 08 I don't know what year the fuzions are from OEMs?

Don't know how to resize pics on this phone but might post it before I go to bed

P.S might totally surprise you folks with some crazy wheels and tires!

Ok here are some pictures of the 13 year old tire, made on the 15th week of 2000

As mentioned before it really doesn't look TOO bad! I just hand washed the car so it is a bit wet and you can't see the sidewall with some dryness.