Before I traded in my white LS panel I used to get positive compliments on the whole panel no windows thing on a daily basis (I had done some nice mods to it, and also added some real nice 18" wheels and tires),,,, then I traded for my Black SS panel(cuz I always wanted an SS) it looks killer but not one compliment or comment ever,,,, no one even realizes its a panel, everyone thinks its just a black HHR with dark tinted windows,,,,, I've even had friends/people asking why I got rid of my panel even while there standing right next to my black SS looking right at it.

I'm kinda bummed,,,, the whole reason I bought an HHR was for the panel version.

I found a picture below of an SS conversion that looks pretty sharp in white (white is also one my fav vehicle colors) my Toyota Tacoma is super white, de-badged with polished aluminum Pro Comp Extreme wheels,,,, my Tacoma gets drooled over every day when it's out in the wild

Anyhow, my two choices,,,, sell off my black SS (super low mileage under 30,000) and buy a white LT or LS panel, which will be hard to find one with such low mileage and in a good as shape as my black SS,,,, or,,,,, just paint my SS white.

It would be a one of a kind real SS in white,,, not sure how much of that would hurt the resale value though doing a color change.

Opinions welcome.

Anyhow, pictured below are examples of what my black SS would end up looking like if I painted it from black to white,,,,,, honestly, I think this white SS conversion looks pretty slick in white.

Thanks in advance for any opinions offered.
Cheers
Davyo

 

First off, dont worry about resale value, these cars have none.

If you want something special, my advice is dont go for all white. There are actually a lot of them around used for business vehicles. I would do something custom with the black, like a stripe or two-tone, anything goes well with black. White, silver, blue, red, or some combination of three. Use your imagination and find something you like.

 

A GOOD pinstripper (and I mean one that uses paint, and not that cheap tape) would be able to give some great suggestions to add some subtle touches to unplain-jane it without going through a total repaint. One great thing about pinstriping is it can be removed easily if you want to make changes.

 

I would stick with black and add to that . you could leave the front black and fade to white. going down the road it would look like the paint was coming off of it. or do something else like that and leave black as the base so then you would not have to do the jams and other area that are a pain to get to when you paint.

 

If you honestly bought your panel for this reason..............
Then why do you even care about this "problem"?

If you are buying a car because you want to be noticed (and your post is showing that), then you are buying for all the wrong reasons.

If you still want to paint it, then don't worry about re-sale value because as it's already been stated, they don't have much of one anyway.

Also, if you plan of doing a correct color change, plan on spending closer to $10k than $5k. Nothing looks worse then when people do a color change but don't go all the way. That makes any car look horrible and really de-values any vehicle.

 

it's up to you now that you have some ideas

 

Hoe about like the Bugatti the front fender to the rear fender then you can tell everyone its a Bugatti??

 

Personally, if you're SS makes you happy, then that's all that matters.

 

Like a few here have said, you might think of a two-tone look. Upper half white and keep the black down low. Add a 3rd pinstripe color in between. A blue or gray would go well.

 

I bought the panel because they are not the normal everyday boring type vehicle that most vehicle's are.

And yes,,, I did buy a panel because I wanted it to be noticed for the cool factor of it being a panel.

Lots of people buy vehicals based on color, personality, to be noticed and a bunch of other deciding factors like that come into play when making a vehicle purchase,,,,,, that's not buying for the wrong reason in any way.

I also bought the panel for other reasons other than the cool factor,,, as a working musician the HHR panel is great for moving amps, guitars and speaker cabs,,,, while keeping everything inside from view.

But yes,,,, I did buy the panels to get noticed as well since they are kind of rare,,, especially an SS panel,,,,, so yep,,, I am guilty of the vanity thing as well for my purchase of an HHR panel.

As I stated in my OP,,,, I would have never bought an HHR if it had not came out in a panel version.

As far as my original color dilemma I found an answer,,,,,,,, I'm thinking real hard about doing a flat white Plasti Dip paint job on my black SS,,,,,,, I can always just remove the white Plasti Dip (peels right off) and the the SS is all back to original,,,,, the YouTube videos and the end results are very cool,,,,, I've been spending a bit of time on the www.dipyourcar.com website.

For anyone that has never checked out the Plasti Dip website take a look at it,,,, it really is a very cool alternative to a normal auto paint job,,,,,,, and an easy DYS,,, and, a lot cheaper than a paint job as well.

Cheers
Davyo