I recently acquired a 2011 HHR for my daily driver, foremost because I like the body styling and not necessarily because I wanted to make an Ecto, and while it’s not likely that it will be Ecto’d out 24/7, I do want to “dress it up” for the Halloween season.
Now, I know that HHRs are “been there, done that” so I wanted to do some styling that sets mine apart a little from those that have come before, and currently I am contemplating the vinyls and I thought I’d bounce the idea off of the community.
I’ve been in touch with a vinyl guy here in town… looking primarily for the cost of cutting. Application should be pretty straightforward except for around the tail light. My hope is that it will wrap over them and into the liftgate seam without too much trouble.
I had the idea to put the red stripe/fin on my HHR awhile ago so I spoke to several professional auto body people about it and they all seemed to agree that applying vinyl over the contours is not a big deal. One guy said the people who do vinyl car graphics use a heatgun/hair dryer to warm the vinyl and then burnish it onto the contours with a tool. I debated doing this for some time but recently decided it would be better to just have the stripe painted on and I found a person who said they would mask the area and paint it for me for a small fee. I suppose one of the major things to consider is how permanent you want the stripe to be.
Why… why would it be? The panels on the vast majority of cars are curved to one degree or another and full vinyl wraps are pretty much the most common thing out there…
Down here, Autozone has their HHRs with the stripe going down the side. It’s vinyl, and looks slick. I tried to dig up a picture, but couldn’t find one. First time I saw it, I was like, ANOTHERR ECTO ON THE ROAD?
Because some of us are pretty car-stupid and don’t know all the ends-and-outs of options for our cars, such as what goes into a custom paint job or how vinyl graphics are done, this is why I asked several professionals what their choice would be. The HHR’s rear tail section looked pretty daunting to me to try to fit vinyl to, but that was because I didn’t know how it’s done. I’m still planning to get it painted on, however.
Well, the sign guy that our company has worked with in the past quoted me $200 to cut the vinyl, $200 to apply. I consider myself pretty handy with an xacto so I think I’ll probably attempt cutting and applying my own anyway. If it’s bad or I don’t like it, I’m only out $70. I’m also into the whole DIY thing, so… whatever.
Yeah, I’ve seen photos of those Autozone HHRs. It’s what inspired me to stripe my car this way.
