4x4 Chevy HHR Panel

8 minute(s) of a 51 minute read

The transmission was replaced with a rebuilt 4l60E and a new torque converter and installed on the chassis. The wheels are Jeep take-offs with wheel adapters.  I will not do a gray frame again!

The first step of body fitment was to pull the entire HHR interior.  Saves time later when cutting floors and the firewall.  It is a nice rust free body.  I fixed the dents by swapping a door and two fenders with good stuff from the junkyard.  I spent a whole year on body work last time! It was also time to set up the a-frames and chain hoist - I will be lifting and lowering the body a hundred times!

Time to trial fit - still not sure if this is even doable.  Looks like it.  I measured everything 4 times.  It will not be easy (the Brat was not) but doable if you don't mind a lot of hard work!  The HHR deserves to be a real truck! After removing all the drive train and rear suspension and fabricating some lift points I hoisted the body up 40 inches into the air and rolled the chassis under.  It kind of fits!

But the wheel wells were several inches out of alignment - the firewall and floor must come out!  I raised it up and down ten time marking with blue tape and trimming until the body settled in closer to where it needed to be.

Once the body would set in place I rolled it out under the carport and started working on HHR #2 to flip to finance the rest of the 4x4 HHR.  I pulled the engine it had a spun rod bearing still running with a bone jarring knock!  Severely damaged, not repairable.  But I have a spare HHR engine out of the 4x4 project!  I replaced timing and balance chains, oil pump, water pump, plugs and tried putting the spare motor into #2 (the flipper).  Did you know HHRs have several different motors?  I did not.  I was trying to put a 2.4L VVT (variable valve timing) engine into a 2.2L body without VVT - oil and water!  Oh no!

So then I had to find another HHR with a good 2.2L - for cheap.  Found one 150 miles away and towed it home on a dolly. HHR#3!  It had a black interior! I wanted black interior for the project.  And it had a straight body - only the trans was out - and it stunk real bad inside from setting for months with water in the floor! The lady was buying groceries when the trans went out - they were still in the car!  That really knocked the price down but my wife was not as proud of the deal as I was! I took the motor and interior plastic, threw the carpet on the burn pile and power washed the inside.  Oh and I kept the front bumper cover.

Once again I installed a timing chain, balance chain, water pump, oil pump, plugs, etc (easier this time!), did an oil change and dropped the 2.2L into the 2.2L HHR body (lesson learned!). It fit like a glove!

I  actually installed it twice if I'm being honest - I missed the timing one tooth on the crank the first time and it ran rough - it hurt my feelings redoing so much work so let's not go into that!  Eventually got the flipper HHR back together and running and replaced the brakes, control arms, rear shocks, struts, and serviced the auto trans - all the stuff to make it a honest deal for the buyer and a car that only need oil changes the next few years.  I also replaced driver's seat that had a torn cover.  It is a nice clean car - I will drive it a few months for fun! The title takes 3 months anyways in Arkansas for covid slow down.

I worked the TPMS light that likely had been on a long time - had to replace the key fobs to get the system into learning mode so the light would go out.  Worked a airbag light issue (replaced steering column airbag), and a couple of service engine lights (oil press sensor).  I have driven it several hundred miles - no warning lights. Cruise, everything works.  Will service A/C next and call her done.

I put all the old parts back on the orange parts car - interior, motor, everything reinstalled, a pain in the ass!  Guess what that did?  It turned the orange parts car back into a orange parts car without the stink!  Still has lots of good parts so I sold it for $400 to a guy who seemed to mainly want the catalytic convertors anyways.

So, finally back to the 4x4 HHR project.  I rolled it back in the shop and continued trimming stuff until I got the body fitted as good as I realistically can.  I would like to re-arch the fenders but the back wheel well is into the rear door and I don't want to go there.  If l lower it any more I will have to pull the HHR fuel tank - which I want to use since I had to pull the Blazer tank to cut the frame - 3.25 inches.  It is all related!  You go back and forth a nudge here and nudge there until finally you say - ok it is what it is!  I welded on the front right body mount and installed a bolt and called the body in position.  Then I rolled it out into the sunlight for a setting on the bucket look.  Funny thing - it looks better in person than in the photo usually it is the other way around.  Must be shadows in the photos,  but the wheel wells look normal in person. We have seen thousands of jacked up 4x4's!  So next I will fit in the Blazer floors which have all the humps for the transfer case and Blazer chassis shapes.  I'll have to deal with distributor access - you must be able to replace it without lifting the body!  Some kind of access panel?  

I found the dash I want - 1948 Chevy truck.  It makes the connection between the grandfather panel truck and the current HHR car version.  The guy made me buy the whole cab ($200) to get the dash - but these things are getting harder to find so I agreed.  He also gave me the gauge clusters which were stored inside (because he liked the project).  They look pretty good cleaned up and populated.  Looking forward to ordering paint!  More updates to come! to come!