I wanted to make some subtle appearance changes to the HHR and I was wondering what are some of the best little things I might be able to do.

I was toying with the idea of de-badging and changing the color of the bowtie...whats the best way to do this?

 

Those are probably the easiest and most popular "first mods"

Debadging is simple..... the emblems are held on with 3M tape. Some fishing line will cut through this easily and then clean up the remaining tape with something like WD40, then clean and wax the area. Done!

Painting the bowties can be done on or off the car, standard sand/prime/paint/clearcoat using "rattle cans" works fine...... some guys go with vinyl overlays as another option.

 

Mike,

the de-badging, as greybeard said..

I did the bowties on my hhr.. however, I would say, for the rattle can primer, make sure you mask off the bowtie well and have newspaper well taped up around it so you dont get primer on your finished paint.
I also used the touch up paint for my specific paint color, on the bowtie..

 

If you have a LT or LS you can color match the side mirrors too. The SS's came with it, maybe you could find one on the site (or google) and see what I mean. I have a Black SS so I never had to do mine

 

I'd suggest taking off the bowties (this is what I plan on doing tonight with mine). Overspray on your paint can be a pain to remove. Just easier to pop them off and paint them some where else.

 

Add some retro style badges, install a stubby antenna if you can live with bad radio reception, swap out the wheels, tinted taillights and markers if legal in your area, and just generally keep it detailed since a super clean vehicle stands out just by being as perfect as possible.

 

Are the bowties held on with the 3M tape as well?

I can get those done tonight if so!

 

From what I have read on this forum yes. But I have yet to pull mine off so I could just be speaking out my ###.

 

Depends on how much of the bowtie you are talking about. If it's just the gold part, no, there's some glue involved (was on mine) the gold and the chrome bezel together I have read are held on via the tape.... I didn't take the bezel off. (yes it's two pieces, go look) I only removed the back one on mine, the front I painted in place.......

 

Yup, the Bowtie assemblies are help on with 3-M tape, but the emblems are two part assemblies so you can separate the two pieces if you're careful. Here's a link to a Bowtie removal/modification thread, its an oldie but the information is still applicable.

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/show...bowtie+removal