White Panel LS in the Midwest (7R4SH)
08-20-2012, 10:41 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: 05-01-2012
Location: 10 Acre Wood, MN
Posts: 9
White Panel LS in the Midwest (7R4SH)
Howdy Folks,
After creeping these forums for the past 3 months I’ve finally decided to introduce myself.
For starters, I live in (Northernish) Minnesota, just a few miles from border with Wisconsin. I just finished my four degree in Communications & Marketing @ Augsburg College in Minneapolis.
I am a customer service and logistics manager for a company that converts used cooking oil into Bio Diesel.
On top of that my father (old man) and I run a video production company. (Everything but porn) This company is how I came to meet the strange breed known as the Chevy HHR.
It was late in 2007 when my old man noticed his first HHR and I remember him saying “If only it didn’t have so many windows.” Being a video production company we have to haul a lot of (expensive and sometimes not insured) gear around and theft is not an option.
Then it happened…my old man discovered the HHR Panel. It was love at first sight and within a week our company was sporting a new white 08’ panel LS with less than 1k on the clock. It sat in the garage for the first winter due to the fact that our driveway is 1/2 mile rally special stage and as we all know, Firestone Affinity tires and snow don’t get along so well. Fast forward to the winter of 10’ we equipped some lovely Bridgestone Blizzaks on the stock steelies and with a little bit of Sisu (Finnish courage) our little Panel became a winter warrior.
Fast forward to June of 12’ I had been searching for some time for a replacement for my 96’ Jeep Cherokee Sport 2 Door whom I affectionately call Rowdy. She has been at my side since the fall of 06’ but after many years of bombing country back roads and pulling trees she finally reached 200k and I felt it was time to retire her. It was then that I made the ultimate discovery…while creeping craigslist I stumbled upon a posting for a 09’ Panel SS in Eau Clair, WI. I emailed the link to the old man and a week later we doubled the amount of HHRs on our property.
Almost immediately after I bought the 08’ Panel from my old man I discovered Chevyhhr.net and man o’ man has my bank account been in rough shape ever since. Just before the Panel SS discovery my old man purchased a set of chrome rims & tires on craigslist off of what the seller said was an HHR SS. Turns out they were actually take offs from Spring Edition HHR! (Funny how things work that way really.) The best part about this little story is that I fronted the $600 to my old man so he could buy the rims and tires and two weeks later he bought the Panel SS. So needless to say he didn’t pay me back for them. Personally, I think they make my Panel look like a Hot Wheels car, but they will do for now.
Next up, I started looking into lowering my panel, even though I do live on a gravel road and am quite “country” in my own right. Goldline’s seemed to be the best bet according to the plethora of posts about them on chevyhhr.net so I ordered a set from truckshop.com along with a CGS intake.
A week or so later I stumbled over a post on craigslist for a backseat & grill for an HHR in the same town that I work in. Turns out it was a fellow chevyhhr.net member ANOKAHHR. Sadly as most of you senior members know he traded his panel in for a 2012 CARAVAN SXT for the wifey. Funny side note, he said he had Goldlines on his panel and he had to take them off due to the seriously large lip/drop at the end of his driveway. I backed straight out of his drive (not yet lowered) and scraped the bumper HARD haha. I believe his daughter was having a baby shower or something along those lines and everyone was arriving as I was leaving. Needless to say everyone gave me that “Oh Sh%t Look” as I scraped my way out of the drive and headed home.
After driving the old man’s Panel SS I quickly realized that if I wanted to enjoy my panel in the corners I would need to do something about the absolutely horrid FE1 suspension. I dove back into the forums and waded through the endless amount of redundant posts until finally I was able to assemble a list of part numbers for a FE5 swap. (Struts, Shocks, Links, Insulators, Spring Seats) I went through www.crateenginedepot.com and they had everything I needed to achieve my goal. Two weeks later I pulled my Panel into my friend’s workshop, loaded it onto the lift and three hours later I was in the land of the lowered. Funny side fact, My HHR was the first vehicle that my friend has ever lowered. (He’s mostly a lifting trucks kind of guy.) I love it when the shop fees can be paid with a case of beer or two.
Since then I have added:
New drums & shoes @ 58k (Long story)
A back seat ^__^ @ 61K (Thanks to ANOKAHHR)
A Kenwood DNX-6180 Head Unit w/ Garmin GPS. @ 63K
An Alpine MRX-100 Monoblock Amp & 10’ Alpine Type R Sub @ 63K
Installed SS Rocker Moldings & tamed the rusting pinch welds at the bottom of all the doors @ 68K
The JL9 Rotor Upgrade (https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/arch...p/t-41415.html) @ 69K
I drive roughly 100 miles minimum 5 days a week and I am all over the Minneapolis/St.Paul area. Soooooo if anyone local wants to meet up and chat/cruise/ect. send me a message.
Thanks for reading ^__^ I’ll post up pics soon – heading to local beauty spot today after work.
7R4SH - Jacob
After creeping these forums for the past 3 months I’ve finally decided to introduce myself.
For starters, I live in (Northernish) Minnesota, just a few miles from border with Wisconsin. I just finished my four degree in Communications & Marketing @ Augsburg College in Minneapolis.
I am a customer service and logistics manager for a company that converts used cooking oil into Bio Diesel.
On top of that my father (old man) and I run a video production company. (Everything but porn) This company is how I came to meet the strange breed known as the Chevy HHR.
It was late in 2007 when my old man noticed his first HHR and I remember him saying “If only it didn’t have so many windows.” Being a video production company we have to haul a lot of (expensive and sometimes not insured) gear around and theft is not an option.
Then it happened…my old man discovered the HHR Panel. It was love at first sight and within a week our company was sporting a new white 08’ panel LS with less than 1k on the clock. It sat in the garage for the first winter due to the fact that our driveway is 1/2 mile rally special stage and as we all know, Firestone Affinity tires and snow don’t get along so well. Fast forward to the winter of 10’ we equipped some lovely Bridgestone Blizzaks on the stock steelies and with a little bit of Sisu (Finnish courage) our little Panel became a winter warrior.
Fast forward to June of 12’ I had been searching for some time for a replacement for my 96’ Jeep Cherokee Sport 2 Door whom I affectionately call Rowdy. She has been at my side since the fall of 06’ but after many years of bombing country back roads and pulling trees she finally reached 200k and I felt it was time to retire her. It was then that I made the ultimate discovery…while creeping craigslist I stumbled upon a posting for a 09’ Panel SS in Eau Clair, WI. I emailed the link to the old man and a week later we doubled the amount of HHRs on our property.
Almost immediately after I bought the 08’ Panel from my old man I discovered Chevyhhr.net and man o’ man has my bank account been in rough shape ever since. Just before the Panel SS discovery my old man purchased a set of chrome rims & tires on craigslist off of what the seller said was an HHR SS. Turns out they were actually take offs from Spring Edition HHR! (Funny how things work that way really.) The best part about this little story is that I fronted the $600 to my old man so he could buy the rims and tires and two weeks later he bought the Panel SS. So needless to say he didn’t pay me back for them. Personally, I think they make my Panel look like a Hot Wheels car, but they will do for now.
Next up, I started looking into lowering my panel, even though I do live on a gravel road and am quite “country” in my own right. Goldline’s seemed to be the best bet according to the plethora of posts about them on chevyhhr.net so I ordered a set from truckshop.com along with a CGS intake.
A week or so later I stumbled over a post on craigslist for a backseat & grill for an HHR in the same town that I work in. Turns out it was a fellow chevyhhr.net member ANOKAHHR. Sadly as most of you senior members know he traded his panel in for a 2012 CARAVAN SXT for the wifey. Funny side note, he said he had Goldlines on his panel and he had to take them off due to the seriously large lip/drop at the end of his driveway. I backed straight out of his drive (not yet lowered) and scraped the bumper HARD haha. I believe his daughter was having a baby shower or something along those lines and everyone was arriving as I was leaving. Needless to say everyone gave me that “Oh Sh%t Look” as I scraped my way out of the drive and headed home.
After driving the old man’s Panel SS I quickly realized that if I wanted to enjoy my panel in the corners I would need to do something about the absolutely horrid FE1 suspension. I dove back into the forums and waded through the endless amount of redundant posts until finally I was able to assemble a list of part numbers for a FE5 swap. (Struts, Shocks, Links, Insulators, Spring Seats) I went through www.crateenginedepot.com and they had everything I needed to achieve my goal. Two weeks later I pulled my Panel into my friend’s workshop, loaded it onto the lift and three hours later I was in the land of the lowered. Funny side fact, My HHR was the first vehicle that my friend has ever lowered. (He’s mostly a lifting trucks kind of guy.) I love it when the shop fees can be paid with a case of beer or two.
Since then I have added:
New drums & shoes @ 58k (Long story)
A back seat ^__^ @ 61K (Thanks to ANOKAHHR)
A Kenwood DNX-6180 Head Unit w/ Garmin GPS. @ 63K
An Alpine MRX-100 Monoblock Amp & 10’ Alpine Type R Sub @ 63K
Installed SS Rocker Moldings & tamed the rusting pinch welds at the bottom of all the doors @ 68K
The JL9 Rotor Upgrade (https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/arch...p/t-41415.html) @ 69K
I drive roughly 100 miles minimum 5 days a week and I am all over the Minneapolis/St.Paul area. Soooooo if anyone local wants to meet up and chat/cruise/ect. send me a message.
Thanks for reading ^__^ I’ll post up pics soon – heading to local beauty spot today after work.
7R4SH - Jacob
