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Her Smart As a lover of all things quirky, and stumbling into working on some Smart cars, I have fallen in love with these little critters. So when a low milage one came up at the right price I had to have it! With cheap insurance & 55 mpg these things are great fro whizzing around in. There is no reason to leave it stock either...
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This is my Smart, I bought it this March 2005. It was a MK5 2001 model Pulse in Stream Green with 21K on the clock. It is LHD but UK spec. It is 600cc turbo with a K&N filter added. It came with electric windows & mirrors, remote locking, 4 airbags, ABS, traction control, alloys & spot lights. Nice... |
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The First Job Was to change the colour. We liked the colour of my Oakley sunglasses so a match was found at Automotive paint supplies in Aldershot, (01252 313141) I was fortunate to be able to borrow a spray booth to paint the panels. I took the time to do an engine service while the panels are off as it is immpossible with them on. I bought all the parts from Smart Tune. |
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This is how it looked once it was all back together with a good polish up. Not bad... The colour is an Isuzu colour called 'Golden Yellow'. It was quite difficult to paint as it needs a white ground coat first, followed by the gold, then the clear. It was worth the effort though.
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I painted the grille black to match in with the rest of the theme. The silver would have looked out of place... |
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It's
amazing what a difference a drop of paint can make, and choosing the
right colour can make or break a car. I will let you decide about this
one...
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This is how it was recently. I have added some vinyl graphics, there is the Cobra style front stripe and a couple of 'Smart Arse' decals too. I may fit the rest of the stripe to the boot & valance but will wait & see if we like it or not... |
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A
quick play around with a graphics package on the PC soon had a file
ready for some 'Smart Arse' stickers to be cut.
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This was my next modification. I have added a set of Kahn 5 spokes, It looks a lot better and seems to go round corners easier. It's not quite so scary in a cross wind too... Tyre sizes are 175/55x15 up front & 195/50x15 out back. There are now down sides to fitting these wheels, it just drives better than ever.
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How can you not love the qute little things, I might have to get Smart-Tune to re-map the ECu soon, that will lose the 84 mph speed limiter & release a few more horses! - Nice... My next job is to fit a CD changer... |
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CD player is now in & working fine, I bought used a Grundig 6 shuttle as fitted by Smart, bolt it down, plug it in & away you go. Simple...
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I have just bought & fitted this nice trick little front spoiler. It's made of GRP & fits really well. It was quick to fit & comes in black so no need to paint it. |
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The back end was feeling a bit left out. I didn't want to spend a fortune on a new exhaust system as the original was fine. I have been told that they are well designed and have a good flow rate, so there would be little gain by changing it.
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I opted for the cheap trick of a tail pipe trim. This came from Nipper20y on Ebay. There seems to be lots of bits for sale on Ebay with sometimes a bargain or two to be had... This Smart has now been sold to make way for a new cabrio model. |
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This is what the new cab looked like when we picked it up. It was a low milage car in very good condition. It was nice enough, but a little dull. |
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We
opted for a green this time. The colour is from the mid 90's Nissan
range. It's called yellowish green. How bizare.
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We kept the Khan wheels from the old car as they are a nice choice. I am not too keen on the Passion wheels so it was the obvious thing to do. I will take some more pictures when the sun is out, there is a nice flip to the paint with a gold hint to it. The paint was done by www.martinscoachworks.co.uk. Martin would be happy to quote for your own custom paint job. Go on, be different... |
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The
Funky Smart cabrio has served its purpose now, & has now been
sold. It has been a great car to own. We put 26,000 miles on it with no
trouble at all. It was always serviced on time & the turbo let to
cool before switching off. Hopefully the new owner will love it as much
as we do. It has been replaced by a VW Lupo. I still have the original
wheels for sale too.
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