MiniMike does a burnout in a Smart Fortwo

[Mike1]

Smart Fortwo | Mike's Daily Drive | Project Thread

Well, this little gem came up and I simply could not say no so I guess its time to announce that I now drive a Smart Fortwo. :rollsmile:

Vehicle Info | History

So its a 2003 Smart Fortwo 600cc Turbo.

This car (is it a car) and I have a very troubled history. Originally bought over a year ago for R30 000 the car was paid for by my dad and was a gift to me when I launched my then detailing company.

Purchased from a family member of a fanatic, young and stupid I never checked the oil and after having the car for 4 days it dropped a valve and a turbo.

Another R30 000 later we had a rebuilt motor and new turbo fitted and the car was delegated to doing deliveries for my dad's company. A year later it still runs strong and my dad recently offered for me to have it back.

Well, here it is.

Project Thread | To Do List

The little bugger needs loads of love, it has been abused a bit and as this is a temporary bit of insanity I have decided to have some fun, get those childish ideas out of my head and sort of go a bit nuts with it.

- Major Service (6 Plugs, filters, pipes and Fully Synthetic Oil)
- Recover Dashboard, door cards and seats
- Replace door seals
- Replace both front tyres (Got quotes at R1350 each!)
- Refurbish Wheels to Anthracite
- Wrap or spray Smart Matte White
- Darken Headlights
- Upgrade sound system (New dash speakers, underseat speakers)
- Replace carpets
- Detail the hell out of it
- Upgrade to ITG Air Filter
- Decat and Freeflow (Sounds epic)
- Map once I am happy with its reliability
- Install LED interior lights and footwell lights
- Delip Air Intake

This is the basic list for now, most taken from one of the most informative websites I have ever seen: www.evilution.co.uk

This will be a long term project, but I hope to turn this into a little beast, just go crazy and do things I cant do to a BMW.

If you do not like Smart Cars, please keep your comments to yourself or I will simply remove them. :thumbdo:

Mike

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[Mike1]

First Mods Complete | Dash Retrim, Speakers & Throttle Body Clean

Like most people who get new cars the first thing you want to do is make it yours, well I am no exception.

Eager to have some fun I decided to start with having a go at re-trimming the dull and lifeless dashboard. The original green (who specs this anyway?!) was dull, filthy and needed to go.

I went through to my favourite supplier, Peace River Fabric in Green Point and picked up 1m squared Suede for R80.00.

Here is the original dash, not pleasant at all.

The great thing about the Smart is that although it is a tad retarded in its design it is actually quite clever. Unlike many cars I have worked on Smart made sure the car was put together with pretty much one screw design, a Torx 10.

This makes removing bits and pieces effortless with the dash coming apart in under 10 minutes.

Notice the awesome bass boxes, we will be working on those a little later.

With the top of the dashboard inside you can really get an idea of the state it was in.

Unable to remove the original green (although I was advised this was not required) I taped off all the edges and layered the old green with a healthy layer of contact adhesive and gave it 15 minutes to start drying.

Carefully I placed the suede onto the surface smoothing it out with the a bank card.

After about 4 hours I returned and began cutting using a very sharp hobby knife.

Complete!

At this point two of my friends came along to help me, so we rolled the car onto the lawn (its that easy) and began working on the sound system.

The car already has an excellent JVC headunit so I decided to replace the factory fitted speakers (11cm) with larger 13cm JVC speakers. So old speakers out:

Quick comparison:

At this point I let the two "sound" guys get working on the speakers and wiring and I tackled a common problem on the Smart. The throttle body on these cars are known for clogging up and causing seepage at the pipes.

So out it came (with great difficulty):

A tad dirty but not as bad as others I have seen:

I cleaned the body up, lubricated the mechanism and reseated all the seals whilst the speakers were being fitted to the dash.

A quick sound check and then refitting of the newly covered dash:

I am extremely happy as I was concerned that the red would be a bit hardcore and bright, the picture gives this effect but it isnt. So tomorrow I will grab some more and recover the doors too.

I think that this will look great when the car goes matte white with dark wheels and the glass roof.

So, what do you guys reckon?

Mike
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[andrewbuch]

Awesome Mike. Glad you can finally give your style and love to it
It was treated like crap, you should see her new car already in worse condition than her sisters (my fiance) which is 8 years older.

Its going to be epic once you are done with it.

Sent from my E10i using Tapatalk

 

[herr bmw]

smart ideas:rollsmile:

kidding,always had a soft spot for this little cars,but the prices are crazy.
once saw west coast customs berlin mod one and it really looked mean

are you doing the interior red,seats?

matt white :thumbs:,but then do the wheels matt candy apple red,have seen a audi rs 5 done this way on one of thr web sites,will try and find a photo for you


and also this bmw


good luck with the build and keep us updated

 

[Twinz]

I reckon this is great work done so far :thumbs:

I dont know much about these cars. I see them occasionally in the fast lane and have to gently nodge them to go back to the slow lane...:rollsmile:

But Fuzzy arrived with a Smart to our bmw club meeting yesterday and she was raving about its fuel efficiency and the fact that she could get it up to 140Km/ph. :thumbs:

Cool future mod ideas you have :joy:

 

[Legacy]

Why do you need to change 6 plugs on the car? Thought its only three...

 

[moranor@axis]

was wondering what happened to this car how much can you get out of the engine?

 

[Karthik]

Thats a sick project you have there , goodluck with it

 

[Rolf]

I can see something like this coming towards us:

 

[Philip Foglar]

Coming along very nicely!! :thumbs:

 

[Psymon69]

you must be over the moon! I know how badly you wanted this little c(sh)ity car:rollsmile: haha im just kidding, i like the uniqueness factor of the car, thats what makes it a winner in my book. i know its gona be a great project and with you at the helm its gona kick ass!

now for the dumpvalve, its a turbo isnt it:rollsmile:

 

[Rolf]

... turbo it is.... :=):

 

[Carbon M3]

The only reason I'd get a Smart is to do the Diablo conversion.

Google for details :thumbs:



[video=youtube]

 

[Rolf]

For the Diablo money you can buy 3 normal Smats :nonono:

 

[Sankekur]

If you do not like Smart Cars, please keep your comments to yourself or I will simply remove them. :thumbdo:

Then why post on the forum?

 

[rick540]

If you do not like Smart Cars, please keep your comments to yourself or I will simply remove them. :thumbdo:

Then why post on the forum?

To stir like Rick is always stirring, why not keep the smart to yourself and we will post all the comments. :fencelook:

It kept me quiet, have not said a word.

Anyways Mike and I chatted about Smart cars when he was here and I was nice about them. I'm sure they are very cool to a lot of people but a concept I personally do not understand..... at all.

No seriously Mike I admire your passion for these cars and I hope this one gives you much enjoyment. You never really did get the time to play with it and now you can. :thumbs:

 

[moranor@axis]

push the front wheels out to make something like this:

you can use the front section to keep all your detailing stuff :rollsmile:

 

[Mike1]

Simple, it takes one negetive comment and everyone jumps aboard.

Besides, nobody mocks a BMW project thread or a BMW car on this forum and I would hope I would get the same respect.

 

[Sankekur]

Isn't that the kind of risk you take when you post something on the forum?

 

[herr bmw]

mike keep me updated on this project please.

guys regardless of what projects,fanatics take on lets support them instead of dishing them