I tried and tried to be careful about closing the rear hatch without putting to much pressure on the "beauty bar" above the rear license plate. Well the other morning I'm heading out to my car and I noticed two "dimples" on either side of the beauty bar. Rats! OK, so does anyone know the best way to fix the dents? Do I take it to Chevy? Will this fall under my warranty? Can my "paintless dent removal" guy do the job? Is there a fix for this problem so I won't accidently do it again? (Lots of questions, I know!) Any suggestions or feedback greatly appreciated as usual :)

 

I would try paintless dent removal. Todd (Uma)

 

I push shut on the lic plate..

 

You're dealership probably wouldn't cover it.
PDR would be the way to go.
No known fix to it, other than learning how much force it takes to close it with the "cup" in the lift gate without slamming it shut

 

Any pressure is too much pressure for the bar.

You just need PDR and to retrain yourself to shut it with the cup or plate.
Don't do anything with the bar but look at it is the only repair.

It is no different than not sitting on the fenders. Todays cars use very thin metal to reduce weight. Even expensive cars have issues with easy dents and dings. This is far from just an HHR issue.

 

The replacement part is pretty cheap from the dealer wholesale sites- I will eventually get the black chrome piece (it's called a rear applique apparently), and it sells for $57- I'm not sure how much PDR is, but is it that much cheaper?

 

Ah....... the part that dents is the rear hatch not the bar. The bar is plastic and can't dent.

The top areas around the hatch dent in when you push on the bar not the bar itself.

 

Talk about a dissapointing design. That bar should be usable, but of course as we know isn't. I've trained myself to push on the license plate, not nearly as intuative as the bar.

 

I do too. But you know what I worry about, everyone else. The family (forgetting), the dealership, the car wash people, the detail guys, and the fellow employees that get stuff out of my HHR panel. It is such a real pain to watch everyone else.

 

Lic. plate only , Since day one (because of the info i read here on this site )
And no problems . And because of the bumper drag across thing, The family knows that only i open , close , put in , or take stuff out of the rear of my SS.
Ya , They think i'm crazy, But i'm ok with that.