Hey Guys,

I am new here and just picked up an 09 LT. It is silver and had the chrome wheel covers over the 5 spoke painted wheels. I thought they were actually chrome wheels till I got the car home. Shame on me.

I was looking for a way to "dress up" the HHR and make it mine. I pulled off the chrome wheel covers and liked the utilitarian look of the black steel wheels but they looked really unfinished with the bare hubs and oversized lug nuts (the ones with external threads).

I think I found the solution.



Here are the parts before install.


I am going to have the wheels re-coated to take care of the scratches left from the wheel cover marks and move to wheel weights on the inside of the wheel. This is an updated look of an old classic for the hotrods, black plain wheels with chrome lug nuts and hubcaps.

 

Looks good, where did you get the center caps?

 

I think it's cool how the newer style hub caps on a lot of cars dont even look like hubcaps. But I've been a fan of the blacked out "cheapy" rims like that anyways...looks good!

IMO, you could pay a lot for some black wheels, or just take off your hubcaps and it looks just as good!

 

I got the lugnuts from Amazon.com. The center caps I found online at classychevusa. The backs of the center caps have a little boss that is threaded with 10-32 threads. I drilled and tapped a hole in my hubs and screwed them on.

I know it isn't every ones cup of tea, but I like it and the price was reasonable. I think I have paid about $65 bucks for the lug nuts and caps with shipping. Plus I bought a tap, tap handle and pack of bits. I expected the half-shafts to be really hard but they were pretty easy to drill.

 

Classic look never goes out of style, Nice mod

 

Could a guy put narrow chrome beauty rings on those rims? Might look real sharp.

Mo

 

Curious about this new location for wheel weights. Can you explain where they will be mounted?

 

Marzipan,

I am talking about the stick on ones that they put on the inside of the wheel instead of these ugly ones that hook on the edge of the rim. Most alloy wheels use them. Just a cleaner look.

T 20,

I am pretty sure that those rings will fit on these wheels. When I was doing research for a hubcap solution, it seems like I saw someone else that had done that. My goal is for more of a bare bones hot rod look but the rings would look sharp if that is what you are after.

Drilling and tapping the rear hubs turned out to be more difficult than the fronts. Not what I expected at all. I thought the fronts would be hardened shafts and the rears would be some kind of soft cast stuff... The thing that made the fronts easy was that they already have a hole in them to help center everything. The rears are just kind of a dish and you have to center it on your own.

Thanks for the comments. Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Add one for outside the box. I agree the wheel itself dressed is better looking than the caps. Nice job - keep them coming.

 

what do i search for find these lugs on amazon?