Red Pxl Thread

[stickman007 309]

The 4th Canada1's nickname will remain Red Pxl...@Smartzuum, were you the one that named the car?

 

Anyways, I thought I'll create a thread sharing my adventures and journey with Red Pxl.

 

She made it home with my wife and I late Sunday night without a hitch...though we almost got backed into by a careless driver in Valmount, BC - of course, AB plated driver.

 

Took the rear bumper, crash bar, x-frame off... Took awhile, but finally cleaned the engine and turbo area and also replaced the TIK/turbo seal. Put everything back together and took some pics

 

(my tiny garage)

Edited June 21, 2018 by stickman007

[smartzuuk 167]

Nice!

 

Mike T and I were together when the name Red Pxl came about! It was Mike's prompting to name it 'Red Pxl'. I will have to dig up the video that caused it to be named as such - I should have it still. Plus lots of other pictures.

 

You are officially the 5th owner of the car. I knew the 2nd and 3rd owners personally, and helped them with basic maintenance at times, oil changes, leather treatment for the seats, headlights, tire rotations, but the car also did see the dealer when Roy had it, and fasteddy when the original owner had it. David the 4th owner did a lot of work as well, and it saw the dealer in Langley once, which didn't go so well.   All that said, I am confident it has never been over 8,000 kms between services, and many quite a bit sooner than that... so I trust that the engine internals are quite in good shape.

 

I owned the canada1 cabriolet during most of the time these two owners had the coupe - and the pictures of the four Canada1 cars together was arranged by me as Roy (2nd owner) was out of town and could only leave the car in the driveway for the day!

 

A couple small minor changes to the coupe ought to be noted. The front mudflaps, some pinstriping on the rear valance and the wheels and mudflaps I think, and of course, OEM cruise. The rest is pretty much exactly how it came from MB, and in that other thread Mike posted pictures of the car being customized in Germany at the Brabus factory. 

 

Eddy has an Alcantara steering wheel which would be super cool to get onto the car, but you'd have to try to make a deal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MikeT 744]

Nice!  I like that name, the RED PXL would be a good plate, and it's funny too because a pixel is small and so is the car.  At least that's what I thought after two or three beers that night with Keith, haha.

 

Was the bumper area damaged in Valemount at all?

Edited June 21, 2018 by MikeT

[smartzuuk 167]

I think it was more like a six pack plus Mike but who's counting? 

 

[stickman007 309]

@MikeT Luckily nothing was damaged...no contact, but I would say it was damn close. After the incident, he took off driving like a maniac, but I do have a picture of his license plate on my phone.

 

The engine is actually in very good shape. The timing chain was tight, no visible fuel leak on the high pressure pump, and all the hoses look. I still haven't try looking for that exhaust leak squeak yet...its usually the connection between the turbo and EGR cooler - very tough location. Not a big issue. Once I sort out what I want to do with the EGR, then I'll fix the squeak...its usually gone after warm up anyways.

 

[Willys 747]

This is the reason we buy cameras that record...lol.    I never thought I would need them, but I now own them...lol......Never have I had so many drivers try and force me out of their way...and I have clocked well over 100,000kms on a bike riding all over Canada and into the far north!   I just do not get it, do they think little girls only drive these cars?    I do get many young guys in pick ups pull up to see in the window to see who's driving......they speed off when they see a 60 year old man laughing at them....lol

 

[Leadwing 565]

14 hours ago, Willys said:

I do get many young guys in pick ups pull up to see in the window to see who's driving......they speed off when they see a 60 year old man laughing at them....lol

 Maybe they were hoping for something like this??

[Willys 747]

Exactly and you really can't blame them, can you...lol

 

[smartzuuk 167]

 

 

Great time to share a gem from the marketing handbook - which was actually geared towards USA stats...

 

I was an 'emancipated navigator', with some reluctance on a few points....  

 

 

 

[MikeT 744]

I was an outlier on all counts, being an old Peugeot guy from WAY back (1966) and only getting a smart as a daily driver   Didn't see that on their marketing list.

 

A rational distanced relationship to the car absolutely does not apply when it comes to my 404.

[stickman007 309]

I was definitely not very rational when I bought my 1st Smart....didn't think the Canada1 was either! Hahahaha

 

I thought it was cool...and I needed a hobby.

 

@Willys the plan was to have a dash cam all along...just didn't think I'll need it that quickly. I have 1 on my GLI and man, I can easily have my own youtube channel on "the brave and skilled drivers of AB"

Edited June 22, 2018 by stickman007

[Willys 747]

What has changed?

Oh I know, fuel prices, making this an economic benefit...lol.

 

I seem to have something wrong as I was getting 3.3 KPHL today while driving like an old lady leaving church....how can I keep getting better mileages..? What broke..lol

 

[Willys 747]

I have one front and rear.....seeing them charge up to you at a red light is somewhat frightening.....but it's decieving as those bars are the length of a parking space I think, and they don't infringe into them...but damn...it looks bad!

 

[stickman007 309]

Just now, Willys said:

...What broke..lol

 

 

You spirit? 

 

Don't worry, I'm in my 30s, and I drive like grandma too! My old cdi got 3.8L/100km driving across Canada...but Red Pxl is only getting ~5L/100km so far on my trip back.

[Willys 747]

I add diesel additive every other tank as directed on bottle, no more. It wasn't doing much beforehand but sinse using this simple stuff my gas numbers keep dropping?

 

[smartzuuk 167]

the Smart car has a way of settling in on your typical driving routine, for example, the New Passion Cabriolet that I just acquired, is much happier after 1000 km driving at 1800 RPM than it was when I first got it, so I suspect the fuel economy will be improving over what I've pen and pencil. So far, and I use additives every tank right now and have done to oil changes since I got the car just to try to get it cleaned out, and I still have more cleaning to do like in the EGR area Etc so I think this car will actually do pretty good once I have a few bugs worked out

[smartzuuk 167]

And the irony, of course, is that the maintenance I was dreading to do on a collector car, IE the Canada one Coupe, I'm going to end up doing most of the same things on this passion Cabriolet, but at least I don't have to worry about screwing up five or six thousand bucks worth of Brabus parts

[Willys 747]

WOW 1800 eh, I was thinking mine liked 1925 on the flats best, worried about dropping it lower..? I watch my ScanGuage II while driving just to see how low I can get those numbers. Sometimes i forget to keep watch and when i turn back to it, they are even lower...lol.

[smartzuuk 167]

I quickly on a napkin added up what the price would be to sort of replicate a Canada one look -the Alcantara leather seats Dash and door inserts, and it was literally five to six thousand bucks even today in 2018

 

The front spoiler the rear heat shield Valance and the front grill alone would run almost $1,500 painted and on the car

[Willys 747]

1 minute ago, smartzuum said:

And the irony, of course, is that the maintenance I was dreading to do on a collector car, IE the Canada one Coupe, I'm going to end up doing most of the same things on this passion Cabriolet, but at least I don't have to worry about screwing up five or six thousand bucks worth of Brabus parts

lol...it's a sickness...lol...I can't leave anything alone and just drive it, I either hunt HP or ability such as in Jeeps and ATVs, just to see where they can  go, now it's fuel economy...! Who would have thought...?...lol

Welcome to the club....my name is Jonathan...I am a.....lol

 

[stickman007 309]

Worked on something that was bothering me on my trip back. Every time I got up to highway speed, there's a annoying rattle sound that was coming from the driver door. After removing the inner panel, I suspect that its the door latch cable that is the culprit. Put some double sided foam tape on the cable where I think its making contact - Hope this will do it! Still haven't had time to register the car yet, so can't test it out.

 

Crawled underneath and removed the front under tray to inspect the power steering rack...looks brand new in there!

 

[Willys 747]

That's not a redneck repair....it's even colour matched tape....where's the super duty large roll duct tape hocked all ove that cable to make the strcture of the door panel even stronger type repair...lol.   Not to mention I see no blood loss traces anywhere......couldn't have done a perfect job....nope...!  I can't see it....lol


I got to get me some of them pedals.....I did see some bright yellow ones but just couldn't pull the trigger, but they would have matched the car...lol.

 

Also does you car have the solid side pockets or the flexable versions...? I have a pair of each, and wanted to know which is more usefull..? The solid ones are on my spare car so haven't tried them out  except for the drive home........and wasn't that concerned about them, more the fact the car kept going and I didn't get pulled over...lol.  Nor do i really want to swap them just to find out what I have is better....when someone can give me their prespective...thanks

 

[smartnhappy 218]

You guys seem to be having a blast with the Canada1 coupe.

Makes me think seriously about selling mine.... #1.

My health is starting to turn south, so why do I need a ‘collection’ of 3 Smarts.

It’s just sitting in my garage, under cover, waiting for nice days when I have time to put on a few kms.

Let me know if there’s any interest out there.

I’ve drafted up a very wordy add on all 3 cars, but it’s kinda big to post.

Besides it promotes the cars as the best on earth, as any good add should, right?

 

 

[Willys 747]

1 minute ago, smartnhappy said:

You guys seem to be having a blast with the Canada1 coupe.

Makes me think seriously about selling mine.... #1.

My health is starting to turn south, so why do I need a ‘collection’ of 3 Smarts.

It’s just sitting in my garage, under cover, waiting for nice days when I have time to put on a few kms.

Let me know if there’s any interest out there.

I’ve drafted up a very wordy add on all 3 cars, but it’s kinda big to post.

Besides it promotes the cars as the best on earth, as any good add should, right?

 

 

Sorry to hear, I know the feeling. I used to be very active and always building and making things and vehicles....in the last 5 years that I've slowed down conciderably. Just lost the desire and things hurt now after the slightest amount of work , so I always now think about......how much will this hurt me tomorrow!  I also am thining about thinning my herd down, Bike left yesterday, Willys will be next, then shop tools that are designed to do large engine swaps etc etc.....a lathe..the list goes on.   This getting old sucks..!  My brain says to play but the resulting body aches tells it to shut the fuk up and sit down...lol!

I hope you are OK, and can enjoy what you have but when it comes time to let stuff go, pick the best one and KEEP it, whichever it is.....it really doesn't matter if it's the collector version and you run her through the winter crap, just enjoy it when the weather is better, you'll bitch as you drive it in the salt etc, but smile during the summer You can always get it sprayed  within an ich of it's life with rust protection, Rust check is my favorite but that black stuff Glenn uses seems to work very well. His car I bought from him is covered in it and under it it's like new!  If you can get the same from a lesser vehcile, go that route.......but, I bet the next owner unless another fanatical owner, they will not treat our babies with the same respect.....I know my bike will get a beating soon, all my other machines did after the new owners bought them...it's just how it is.   Unless you plan on being buried in it, it's just a thing to make you smile.....enjoy it!    Then sell the rest.......if you're at that stage as I fear i am creeping fast up to.   Did I say getting old sucks!

 

Take care....many will disagree with this but some will see the light. After all it's yours to do with what you wish.

 

[smartzuuk 167]

 

 

Oh yeah, I remember that annoying rattle on highway speed! Though, as I recall, I thought it was coming from maybe a loose wire in the drivers side rear panel - maybe the sidemarker light wire? I had this once too, on my original smart, same sort of sound.

 

Getting the AC checked out today on my passion cab - a friend took it to his work. Then it'll be time to get a few parts/filters/coolant etc and get the intercooler scoop replaced.