Hello all you beautiful people! I'm Dan, the new owner of a nuggety 2006 Copen 1.3L from Cape Town, South Africa. I thought I'd introduce myself and my new little daily/project car: I got it for a steal, since it's not in the best condition and needs a fair amount of TLC. Mechanically it's in GREAT condition, drives well, engines pulls hard, roofs works, no leaks and no rust! Only 125 000km on the clock, with a mostly full service history. But damn, I've never seen so many different colours of blue on one car XD. I'm the 5th owner, the previous guy took care of the little thing but the owner before did not, so he says. It had terrible wheels on it apparently, so they were replaced with 15's from a Suzuki Swift, for some reason, frustratingly people think I drive a Suzuki now! I'm considering spraying the centre caps black just to hide the logo, since they do otherwise look good on the car. Or.... I try squeeze my old BMW OEM BBS 15's on there.... They're 195's but might just try it for the hell of it! Reference pic off the internet This forum has been such a great resource since buying the car. I've got a few of the common problems we get (seatbelts, rough idle etc) and all the info I've found here has been so helpful! I've already attempted the sticky seatbelt fix, but it didn't work well, so I've going to give it another crack and buy some finer grit sandpaper to go over the sanding I already did - I assume the final result is too rough and doesn't let the belt slide smoothly. I also fixed the skew clutch pedal with a hammer, something I'm very proud of, since it was feeling very sticky. It still feels a little stiff when riding it in traffic, but that's probably just age plus me having owned autos for the past couple of years. My first mods, besides the kei-approved yellow plates, will be a new single DIN radio and some Rockford Fosgate coax speakers. From there, I'll attend to the wandering idle, replace the cabin light, and I'd like to get the rear wind guard engraved. My driver seat needs some TLC, but the passenger seat looks brand new. From there, I'm hoping to stick a cone filter on like another member did, and eventually a minor exhaust upgrade. I don't want it to be too loud, but damn it's currently too quiet! I'd love to get a flapped exhaust like I had in my beloved BMW 220i, but I imagine that will be crazy expensive. My biggest worry will be getting professional help if something breaks, the Daihatsu service centre here has moved away from the brand, so I'll have to find a general service centre that's happy to work on this odd car. At least parts shipping to SA isn't too difficult, I've already got a list from Nengun & Ebay for parts. I'm absolutely in love with this car and I'm so glad to have found such a lovely online community for help and browsing! Anyways, that's all for now. Hopefully I shall return with updates soon enough!
