GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Well, after buying the hood last Sept/October and having it sit in my garage all winter, I finally got it painted last week. I got the hood on ebay for $375 and when it came, there were chips and stuff, noticably one of the corners was broken and needed to be refabricated. Luckily, fiberglass is easy enough to fix, so it wasn't an issue. I asked a few friends and after getting 2 price quotes, one for $1,000+ and another for $900, I asked a friend of a friend who has a Grand Prix with an aftermarket hood. He referred me to a small place, who did (in his opinion), great work for, well, cheap. Boy, was he right. Painting the hood was $275, and I also had them repaint and fix the holes in my front bumper from where the dealer attached the license plate holder for another $150. There is some slight wavyness to the hood, as with most fiberglass hoods, but it isn't noticable. The bumper is awesome and all my rock chips are gone. Smooth as a baby's behind, and twice as shiny. My only gripe are the grill inserts...my hood didn't have them and SLP wants $60 for an insert, not even the pair, a singular insert is $60. I need to finagle something, because I refuse to spend 120 bucks on metel mesh grills. Here is a pic...more will be coming as the hoods gets another buff out this weekend. Feel free to drool.

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of course you know i'm drooling! lol... i shulda got that when they were there... instead i was duped by the scam artist!

Another pic...I also should say my corners don't *exactly* match up as the stock hood, but it's close enough. There isn't much that can be done about it...hoods are hard to get perfect, if at all possible.

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still... sure you won't be able to tell! looks sweet!!!!

Anotther pic...hopefully will get some good ones next week...sposed to be rainy this weekend

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Hey Cathy!!!Lookin' great! Can't wait to see it in person

Sweet!!!!

Very nice Cathy! I'm sure you could find something to cut out for the grills. I don't blame you not paying $60 for something that should cost $5.

That looks sweet.

Oh thats sweet *is there an echo?* heh do you run a short air through your hood?

Very cool Cathy! I can't wait to see that in person. That is definitely a future mod for me as well.

time to fabricate some ram-air deal.

The Hood Looks sweet!Possibly as far as the grill goes you could try making your own. At Home Depot, Lowes or wherever just go pick up some gutter gaurd- A friend of mine made one for his grand am with the stuff. I have not seen the hood in person so I do not know how you would attach it but it could work. I would just recomend that you clear coat the stuff before you put it on-

Hey there stranger! Very nice looking hood

It looks awesome

That looks great!!!

yeah.. i needs to get me one of those.. i m thinkin i wanna get the SLP ramair package as well unless someone knows how to do it for less?who am i kidding im just dreaming here...

Quote, originally posted by Triton »Very cool Cathy! I can't wait to see that in person. That is definitely a future mod for me as well.TRITON--Now that would be the icing on the cake!!! James (Vibe)

yep, i emailed the seller about any vibe hoods and he emailed me back a month later that he had like 4 of them. by that time, i had just put some money down on my non-existant hood! oh i can kick myself for that!!!! shulda cancelled the other order and gone w/ this! oh well, hindsight is always 20/20!can't wait to see everything you've done to your vibe, cathy!

Ohhhh! Me wants, me wants!!!

Ok I have been around vehicles forever and I have a question that someone should be able to answer about the ram air style hoods. Wouldn't you have water intrusion when it is raining anad driving down the road and with say a ram air intake setup on the hood how do you keep the water out of the motor. Just curious it has been boggling my mind for some time now and I figured that all the great people on here would have some idea. You car looks awesome by the way.

It can be a problem if the design doesn't provide good drainage. GM had to disable the hood louvres on the Camaro in the early eighties, due to heavy rains or car washes occasionally hydrolocking the engine. In fact a friend of mine, with a very expensive aluminum headed 400 c.i. small block in his ('83, I think) bent three rods in just this way. (For those of us in the colder climates, snow intrusion is also an issue. Many years ago my 327 Chevy II chugged to a stop in a heavy snow storm. I found the air cleaner packed with snow from my home-built cold air intake snorkles.. )

I know you can't see it in the pics, but those holes aren't open into my engine. So, no chance for anything to get in there for me.edit: for mike who likes to make me feel like an idiot