Now I’ve washed the Peugeot as often as I’ve driven it, so probably don’t need quite that much audio firepower. Alas though, this self-declared maestro of sound’s idea of a minimalist upgrade cost $3000. I was delighted that among the animal slaughterers and dismemberers, I’d found the one artist. “I’m the only one who can do this properly,” he said. The man behind the counter – the owner and proprietor I soon learnt – spoke of himself very fondly.

I went to a one-stop car audio shop with a huge range of options. All eight speakers were rattling, due to the deteriorating rubber surrounds of the diaphragms, and the seven-year-old Sony head unit, although an upgrade on the pre-Bluetooth original, needed to be constantly reconnected to my phone. In between talking to paint people, I decided to fix the sound system. If others don’t see the magic, that’s their loss (and I guess, come resale, mine too).Īlthough it sounded like he was describing a disaster zone, these are mainly things that most people wouldn’t particularly notice. I love its appearance and have an emotional connection with the model. But hey, I think my Pininfarina-designed, Italian-built coupe is a recent classic.

Say, about $47,000 of corners.Īfter all, I’d bought my Peugeot 406 coupe with my heart, not my head, finding perhaps the one model in all of Australia that has been unaffected by the explosion in prices for used cars – particularly recent classics. But as I have a $10,000 car (total spend so far), and it’s a rarely driven weekend foible, I’m prepared to cut a few corners. If I had a multimillion-dollar car like that, I explained, I’d want nothing less than a perfect finish. No way.Īs part of his pitch, the $50,000 man had taken me backstage to show me a mid-1950s gullwing Mercedes-Benz 300SL he was working on. There was evidence of respraying – perhaps to repair hail damage years ago – and in four small places, the clear-coat over the Polo Green metallic paint was delaminating, suggesting the surface preparation had been poor.Ī third spray painter said if I found a small shop with low overheads, maybe they could do an all-over respray for seven or eight grand. But he was right about one thing: there could be anything beneath. And it’s not worth it with a car like this.” “Unless I took it back to bare metal, how could I guarantee the work? There could be anything under that paint. “Can’t do anything with it at all,” said another, who didn’t even want to put a figure on it. Cost you $50,000 though.” That was one paint shop.

“Yeah mate, I can make it look new, brand new. The story so far: our COVID-19 project car has been made safe and reliable, and has been retrimmed.

Peugeot 406 car