Welcome to the site did you have the drums turned? If so they may have cut them at the wrong speed.

I had that happen a few times. When the drum are cut too fast it make the cut like a record. As you apply the brakes the drum pulls the shoe away from the baking plate then the shoes snap back.

Most of the time it's only one side that makes noise because the other side will push the shoes toward the baking plate.

If this is your problem get them both redone.

 

No, I bought new drums, cleaned all the oil they used to keep them from rusting off, painted the outside flat black and installed them. I have thought about pulling the drums and having a friend turn them for me.

 

I wish, no just my backyard, but it probably does need some rehab.

 

You seem to have more then enough experience dealing with this stuff. I just find that the HHR has a lot of weird little idiosyncrasies that have scratching my head.

I just did the rear drums on my wife's '06 LT. Had the drums turned and replaced all of the hardware with the change. I don't have the clunk but I had to back the adjusters out a lot more then I expected to get the rear brakes to do anything. Once that was done everything is good.

Nice shop and ride's by the way. That Rod is sweet.