#SAVETHECOPENS Get that oil change! Check for rust! Lets keep that number from getting any lower If you don't know what you're doing, a lot of colleges have Car Maintenance courses, when you price up the course cost against garage costs it's probably a bargain. Know the basics but want to keep your Copen pristine? I'm on a Classic Car Restoration course at Bolton College, £150, 12 weeks, every Thursday 7-9, learning panel beating, welding, filling, finishing and spray painting, full facilities and you can work on your own car - I'm not yet, I'm still learning so I have a sheet of metal I've measured, rolled and folded into an arched wing segment. So far I've bashed a bunch of dents in it, then beat them back out using a bunch of different hammers, plus oxy-acetylene and a carbon rod heat thing to heat-shrink it. This Thursday I believe we're bashing actual holes in our 'wings' then welding in patches, filling and sanding. There's a few regulars who don't need the lessons, they just use it as a garage to work on their cars and have a chat about them, one of them mentioned a guy last year restored and fully resprayed a Cappuccino there, panel by panel. That'll hopefully be me once I get my skills up. This isn't my work, but this Peugeot was fully kitted, filled, sanded and sprayed there - I know modified isn't to everybody's taste but this is an awesome job, whole kit fully blended in smooth and clean and the paintwork looked immaculate.
I'd love to be able to do a course like that. I have just discovered the beginnings of rust on the rear passenger side wheel arch. I was thinking it might be possible to buy a wheel arch repair section (or even a whole panel) from another car with the same general curve and shape and get someone to weld it in, but doing in as a DIY job would be super-satisfying.
