Hello there. I'm new here and glad to be here though this thread might be a bit painful. Last week my 09 HHR SS got hammered by the Texas hail. I'll try to add pics as soon as I can but basically the hood is dust, front window cracked and every other metal panel has damage. The roof has some big ones also but I don't think it's going to get totalled, fingers crossed. I was curious if anyone had any suggestions on two tone paint for it. It is currently silver with the black and red interior and I have ha some paint people I know suggest paint the top (from the seam up) either black or red with a small stripe of contrasting color to be used between the silver and whatever color we use. So if I went with black then the stripe would be red or the other way around. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Sorry to hear about the hail damage to your SS. A couple of my buddies cars got beat up pretty bad recently by hail($2500 damage est). I was on my up there to where they were, but luckily I missed the storm by about 10 minutes.

I think I would go with the black on top with red contrast to break it up. Should look pretty slick.

 

Welcome to the site, NorthTexaSS, sorry to hear your SS cot clobered, hope they can fix it up better than new.

 

Black would look good, BUT... Black shows any imperfection or damage so the bodywork would have to be excellent or you are going to be very unhappy with the results. The colors that "hide" damage are your white, red, orange, yellow, etc. that were popular on the old hot rods... That's why those colors were used much of the time, to "hide" imperfect bodywork.

Those colors aren't necessarily what you are looking for, but what if you painted the top surfaces silver again and if you want two tone with Black, paint the sides/lower section black. A dividing pinstripe could be anything, red looks good but would be very common. Seeing as you have the black and red interior you are kind of locked into that as a contrast color though... you don't want to add to many colors.

 

Thanks so much so far that's some good information. I had thought of maybe white with a red stripe between too. I can visualize these things just can't draw them out lol

 

Graybeard said it best. The other advantage of painting the lower half of a car, a darker color, is that the darker color brings the look of the car closer to the ground without actually touching the suspension.

 

heres one that I liked 408SS's two tone job

 

to the forum NorthTexaSS!

Sorry to hear you got hammered by some "ice cubes", I brought my Dad's Buick Enclave up from SC on Easter to have its hail damage repaired, every single panel looks like it was hit with a ball bat.

They shouldn't total your HHR, but just so you know, according to the body shop(because I asked after seeing one there that looked like it had been in Baghdad during a rough weekend)...SOP is replacing the hood, roof, front fenders, hatch, and the outer rear quarters on a hail damaged HHR if they are "really, really, really bad".

You'll find some great ideas on two toning here, some very creative people hang out on the forum.

 

Ouch , I hate the hail damage , but that cloud does have a silver lining, that would be the excuse to customize your ride if the insurance will let you Chip Fooze style paint jobs have two tones either way lighter colour on top or down below , the dark on bottom does help the lowered look , but dark grey on top and faded Gene Winfield style into silver would be very cool also. the point is use your imagination and do you it your way! best of luck and post picks of the finished project

 

Thanks for all the input and making me feel welcome. I think I came up with an idea I need to get some markers or colored pencils and see what is looks like on the blank hhr sketch I found.