Click HERE for the first test by AutoVisie on January 4th 1975
DAF 46 1977
Since most of my viewers are from outside the Netherlands this page about this Dutch car is also in English
Cora changed jobs some time
ago and only has to drive short distances, so we sold the Honda HRV
and she bought a Seat Marbella for shopping and going to work.
As you can imagine there little fun in driving a small car like that
and she more and more indicated that she'd like a nice, old and
"special" car for her short trips.
As a guy in the neighbourhood owns 2 Daf 33's she became interested in the Dutch fabricated car and had me search the Internet for more info.
I soon found out that there's more than enough info on Daf's ( links below or just Google for them ) and one thing I found was that there's very little for sale on 33's. I found a "cheap" 33 on the Internet with a dented frontfender and was not able to find a good fender, not even through the Daf-club.
Searching through the ads and checking the info on the particular type of Daf we travelled around, checking several Daf's for sale and finally came across a very nice yellow 46 from 1977
It's a very good car, no
rust in the floorboards or boot, no rust in the enginecompartment,
just some rust near the frontindicators and along the fenderwells, no
problem at all. It does have a nasty dent on the vertical part of the
rearlid, probably from hitting a tree or pole, the same shape of dent
is behind the rearbumper ( so obviously it has a new rearbumper as
that is perfect ). There's also a dent in the right door, but I hope
Nico ( who repaired the Zuk after flipping it ) can work on that.
Interior is in good shape, no need to change anything there.
It came with a new APK and all the documents from new. The warrantyvoucher ( signed 24-03-1977 ) and signed and stamped voucher for delivery and first 1000 km service are there, without even a dirty fingerprint on it. There also a booklet in which the owner marked on what date he put how much fuel in it at what mileage and how much it cost !!!
It has 58.000 original kilometers on it and had been stored from 1993 to 2003 in a ventilated storage before being sold to the guy we bought it from. He only put about 600 kilometers on it in the 3 years he owned it.
Here are some pics:
As shown in the pics below, the underside of the car is perfect, not a bad spot anywhere to be found, thanks to the good Tectyl coating ( they used the sticky kind, not the one that hardens, cracks and retains water, so there even more chance of rust ).
The bolts for mounting the VarioMatic are like new !
And it even has some extra accessories, like the plastic cap that goes behind the "grille" in the winter:
And here are some pics of the things that need work:
In the left pic below is the worst spot on the entire car. It's where the lower fender and the part beneath the "grille" meet. It's a pocket, collecting water, so was bound to be rust there. On the right side it's hardly rusted.
As you can see, no major work.
I've changed the oil in the primary and secundary gears, checked the vacuum on the VarioMatic ( no leaks ), checked the drivebelt, changed the engine-oil, cleaned the oilfilter ( fine metal mesh ), put a new rotor/distributorcap on, new sparkplugs plus leads, Cleaned the carb with "Xeramix"spraycleaner ( runs higher at idle now, so it helped ), Cora put in the new airfilter and I did the fanbelt.
There was a leak in the rubber brakeline to the rearbrake, I put a new brakeline on.
Of course we went for search of the obligatory accessories:
We changed te original bumpers for 2 bumpers off a 44, the front one new and the rear one with a little dent in the cornerpiece. I found a dented bumper with a perfect corner, cut that off and had it welded so the rearbumper is good again:
Doesn't it look even more Classic ?
It gave some trouble starting, so I took the startermotor off and had it rebuilt, new bearings, brushes and a clean up. Works perfectly now !! Thanks to AutoLectro in Herveld.
At the Vehikel OldtimerSale we bought 2 brandnew original round Daf-mirrors ( with the Daf-logo stamped in ).
The engine had an oilleak I had a hard time finding. I finally found that the coolingcover had cut a little hole in one of the pushrodcovers underneath the engine. I bent the cover out and "repaired" the leak temporary with Blue Gasket and a piece or rubber:
It works for now, I have two extra engines ( one has been rebuilt 12 years ago and never used again after that ), I'll take off the pushrodcover of the other engine, the one that's just good for parts.
The heating for the carb was leaking badly too, one of the tubes had rusted through. I found a good intake on one of the engines I bought, sandblasted and sprayed it and put it in with new gaskets.
One of the heaterpods was rusted as well, bought a good secondhand one ( had to weld a couple of holes ) , sandblasted that too, sprayed it MattBlack and on it went, with new gaskets of course.
Of course standing still for so long is also hard on the rubber steering components, so after a while I had to replace the balljoints and shockcovers:
April 16 2007 I replaced the VarioMaticbelt ( 46 only has one opposed to all the other Daf's ), wasn't too hard.
I sandblasted, primed and sprayed the wheels silver, had some stickers made for the black "half moons" on the rims and put on new tires ( 145/80/14 Bridgestones ).
Looks good !
Milage by now ( end of May 2007 ): 63.km, so 5000 km's in only 9 months, including winter, not bad.
I've bought the ultimate Daf-accessory, no one can do without:
and Yes, I dó wear clogs !
Another nice thing to own is the official testunit for the vacuum of the VarioMatic, I got it for free ( well, a couple of beers ) from a mate :
It came complete with instructions, not hard to use and very useful for adjusting the VarioMatic.
Check back to see how we progress in the "restoration" of this oldtimer.
While driving to the garage one day we suddenly found ourself in a DafConvoy ;-)
It's this neighbours immaculate Daf 33 that got Cora thinking about owning a Daf
DAF LINKS
Because I wanted to service the engine with new parts I bought the necesary stuff from:
Quick and accurate delivery. Ordered before 15.00, on the doormat the next day, very nice !
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Want to chat with Daf-owners, got questions?
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Since I guess these little Dutch cars are not very well known abroad, here's a site in English with some info:
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