One thing I've disliked about the smart was the lack of lighting, both in the passenger area and in the boot. There have been several mods for the non-convertible versions of the smart, but almost all revolved around changes to the ceiling, and running lines across the top of the door frame to hook the lighting into the exiting dome light. This is impossible for the soft top, since there's no place to put the lighting, and the rails are removable.
At least I thought so until I purchased the official smart wind screen kit for my cabrio. Part of the kit is a replacement for the roll bar cover that has the hooks needed to hold the screen in place. Looking at the internal parts, it was pretty obvious how the current cover was held on, and how much space was inside the cover. It occurred to me that I could fit some LED lighting inside them and run the power lines down to the trunk.
I found a set of flexible LEDs (from a vendor here on SCOA) and got to work. You could use the same LEDs, or others, just make sure you get something that will handle 12v without making too much heat.
Step 1: Removing the old bar
Before you take the cover off, figure out where you want the LEDs to go and mark that spot on the old bar. I wanted mine to be toward the bottom, so they could light up most of the boot area. You may want to aim yours toward the seat backs, or to reflect off the ceiling.
The old bar will come off if you just pry at with a screwdriver. Taking the cover off will destroy it, no matter how careful you are. The clips are designed to interlock and not let go, ever.
To remove it, you're breaking the plastic clips, and it will never fully lock again. The same applies for the new covers. Once they're on, they're on, and there's no turning back. Worst case you can always order a new bar cover, but they are pricey bits...
Step 2: Setup your template
Using the LED strip as a template, I made a paper tape that marked where the LEDs were, then used a standard hole punch to indicate where the holes should be. As you can see, the paper tape
lines up just right with the strip.
The next part is tricky: Remove any support plastic that's in the way of where you want your LEDs to be. I found that cutting the corners with a dremel and bending the plastic along the seam lines worked better than trying to cut the whole seam out. You can't get too close to the bottom of the bar, since the interlocking bits need some space to do their thing. The ideal position seems to be to pull out the lower support beams, just above the
interlocking parts.
It's best to try all these steps on the busted bar first, since it has an almost identical interlock system. It's busted now, so you may as well practice on it before altering your new replacement bar.
Step 3: Mark and drill your holes
After you've removed the plastic in the path, lay out the paper tape. You can use it to mark where each hole should be drilled. I used the dremel with the medium burrowing tip to make a divot in the center, which I later used to help center the drill bit. A 3/8" bit is just the right size for the LED strip I used, and I found going slower helped keep excess plastic from forming on the outside of the holes. I drilled from the inside out, though if you burrowed your pilot hole through the plastic, you could go the other way, which may make things easier. (I didn't think of that until after I was done.)
Practice on your busted bar, and after you get 5 or 6 drilled, try putting the LED strip in and see how it lines up. The flexible strip I used had plenty of play, so even if I was off a little, it still formed into shape. I also had to cut my strip down to size, which it could handily support in increments of 3 LEDs at a time.
Once you've get a steady hand at it, give it a go on the new bar bits. Be careful to note that you get one R bar and one L bar if you're doing the screen bits.
Once the holes are drilled and the lights are in place,
TEST THEM OUT with a 9v or 12v lantern battery. Be sure to mark out the polarity of the wires with a sharpie or such too. Then bury them in with hot glue or your favorite bonding agent. You don't want them shifting out of their holes while the car is driving around
.
Step 4: Wire the car
While waiting for your glue to try, go look at the car. You probably noticed that the new bars are shorter then the original (unless you just bought a new full cover for this mod). You may have also noted that the bar itself is hollow, and has two drilled holes through it. The covers use these holes to center and hold themselves against the bar. If you're clever about it, you can use this too, to run a wire from one cover to the other, so you only have one wire set to deal with.
I was able to run standard speaker wire through by hooping a bit of thin wire and using to catch the end. You feed the wire in through one hole, and across the pipe, then fish it out of the other end. You'll need to dremel down one side of the plastic that goes into the holes from the cover to make room for the wire, but that's simple.
Step 5: Wire the new lights together
A simple splice and bind should work well. You can use lock nuts if you want, since there's room for them inside the bar. I touched mine with a little solder and taped them up. Remember you want a set of lines coming out of one side to run down to the boot area. I drilled a small hole on the end of the cover to feed those wires out in a clean way.
Now, before you press the parts together ,
TEST THE LIGHTS AGAIN. This is your last chance to fix anything inside the bar. Once you've pressed it to the bar and locked it in place, you can't remove it again. If you can, leave the power connected as you push it together, so if something happens you can stop before it's too late
.
Finally, line up the covers and press them together.
Step 6: Connect them up
Ok, so I'm not done yet. Right now I have a 9v battery and a switch taped to the roll bar cover, which is an ugly hack, but works for now. I was in a rush to get the covers on so I could enjoy the warm weather with the new screen in place. My end goal is to remove the side panel and run the wire to the boot area.
I'm thinking there has to be an indicator switch to tell the car when the boot hatch is open. By linking into that I can probably pull the signal (and maybe the voltage) to know when to turn the LEDs on. I'll edit this with the details once I figure out how to do that. If someone else has an idea of how to do either of the next two bits, let me know!
Lights
off and
on:
A note on the wind screen:
The wind screen does wonders for airflow in the cabin when the top is down (partially or full) and the windows are still rolled up, which is how I like to drive most times. For those that are debating getting it, it basically redirects the air flow so it's waist level instead of head level. Unfortunately it's not very effective with the windows down and/or with the bars removed, so if you like to drive that way, look for another solution.
1 - LT N FLFY
2 - Forests ride
3 - Little Blue
4 - Big Red
Today
Linear Mode
