Crazy Dutch Shite - tought loike a tiger!

[scooters]

well well,

 

a bottle of claret on Sunday night and some late night surfing and what dod I spot - Fek me old boots it was me old Daf 44 - owned by me in early 2008 - swapped with Torsten for a Maxi - bought back from Torsten 'cos I missed it - sold to a daf club member in early 2009 and now back on the market minus an MOT and a clutch

 

1973 Daf 44 - 800cc aircooled flat 2 boxer, VARIOMATIC transmission 23k from new

 

a quick call to the chap selling it - I knew him and the car is mine again - spanners out in the new year to replace the centrafugal clutch shoes - engine out job - not as bad as it seems as it takes about an hour to drop the engine on these babies

 

can't wait - always loved this car

 

[Gompo]

Well done - keep us upto date with developments..

[VWPowered]

defo well done, cant be many about now

[Rusty Pelican]

Good call , maybe keep it this time though

[dollywobbler]

Aw, nice. I've been tempted by this particular 44 (my favourite Daf) more than once. I think my disease has spread to a friend too...

[Electric Leyland]

Good re-re-custody, well done. I'd love to get our 2 ex-A/S Dafs back They have a boomerang effect to the heart don't they?

[scooters]

they are funny wee cars - this Daf was the first "shite" I have owned after a 10 year hiatus - IMHO these dafs are very solid and straightforward cars - once you get your head round the transmission they are pretty easy to keep on the road. The 44, 55 and 66 have the "B " body saloon which is remarkably roomy and also is one of the few wee classics that fat tall blokes can drive - mainly because our dutch cousins are tall and sometimes portly.this car is such a hoot I can't wait to get her back on the road properly

[michiel]

Leuke Daf jong! I'd love one... secretly looking at ads sometimes. Drive around in wooden shoes with a glovebox full of tulip bulbs to celebrate my dutchness.

[Andrew353w]

Excellent find! I've owned loads of 'em, so if you need advice, ping me! The 44 is far more of a "real" car then the little 33 and if tuned correctly goes like the clappers! In this weather make sure the heater pipes (air cooled, remember!) are in good order, as the heat produced is easily lost through leaks.Great cars-making me all nostalgic!

[scooters]

cheers Andrew - I seem to recall all the plastic 'heating' pipes aer in pretty good order - the plastic screen for blocking off the front grill in winter is still there as well - the only bit I will have to work on is the exhaust return pipe which leaves the exhaust manifold and connects to the air intake to give the engine some warmth - I seem to recall building this pipe out of bean cans, jubilee clips and gun gum a couple of years ago and it was never satisfactory - I might bite the bullet and shell out the £150 for a new one - shock horror!I initially bought this car off a chap in Luton who was restoring a Citroen Bijou and wanted the interior from this car. He decided that it was far too good to break and wapped it on the Daf owners club where I bought it having read an article in PC about 33's the month before - I was looking to get back ito old tin after a 10 year enforced absense living in central London.The car itself has a wonderfully mundane history and came with (I do not know if it still has it) a load of paperwork including the salesman's deal closing scribblings and options in biro on a brochure. Also came with the first owner's pros and cons of the 44 vs the automatic Mini - she couldn't drive a manual you see. Anyway she setled on the 44 due to better leg room for all and this car then spend the next 2 decades in her garage in Torquay - when Daf were bought by Volvo and Daf trained mechanics dried up her local garage learned how to service the car and over the subsequent years kept her on the road - before the internet it was difficult to get parts for these cars - or indeed any car - us runners of such things have a great debt to the interweb as it has enabled us to source parts and expertise globally when in the past this was a labourious process. Anyway its tesetment to how tough these cars are that all they did in those years apart from changing the oil - was to 'create' new exhaust pipes out of mini parts as and when the Daf needed them.The 2 cyl boxer engines are legendary for their ability to take abuse - many stories abound in Daf circles about barn finds having had new electrics a dose of oil a load of redex and some petrol - firing up and running like they had been set aside yesterday - sohpisticated they cetainly are not!So the car was used to travel between her house, the shops, the WRI, church etc for her whole life - when she died her son took it over and ran it till the MOT failed at which point he laid it up - when he was taken ill and had to go into a home neighbours stuck it on ebay which is when our Bijou man (and probably Dollywobbler) saw it - Bijou man went down on the train to Devon - sorted it - MOTd it and drove it back to Luton on the M4 - poor car 'cos in those days it had only done 21k - the problem was that Bijou had never learned how to drive a Daf and you should never select direction whislt the clutch is engaged - ie over 1000 revolutions - or crunch - yes it will go into drive but will strip the linings form the clutch shoes in the process!Anyway I bought it -ran it for 6 months and then sent it to BL Transverse on Torsten's advice for them to service and MOT - I never got round to picking it up and instead swapped with Torsten - the rest is explained above.The car wears is history - ie there is a bit of old Pall Mall packet int he ashtray which has written in very neat handwriting on the back how to drive a Daf - obviously written by the woman when she bought it back in '73really looking forward to getting her back on the roadI'll let you know how it all goesRich

[VWPowered]

The car wears is history - ie there is a bit of old Pall Mall packet int he ashtray which has written in very neat handwriting on the back how to drive a Daf - obviously written by the woman when she bought it back in '73

thats sooo cool

[michiel]

^indeed!^So is it just a few tricks you have to know or do you have to be alert all the time if you don't want to break it?

[scooters]

well - on the whole they are pretty simple - essentially you havea/ a steering wheelb/ some small and woeful drum brakes - more for confidence than actually stopping the thing!c/ a stick that sticks out of the floor where you find a gear lever on other cars - you push it forward - the car goes forward - you push it backwards - it goes backwards - somewhere around the middle is 'neutral'. This gear selector has the amusing side effect of being able to make the car go as fast backwards as it goes forwards - Daf's hold speed records for cars in reverse! The critical think is to make sure that the clutch isn't engaged when selecting your direction -so - to start the car this is what you do -left foot firmly on the brake!handbrake onchoke outselect the 'gear' to either forwards or backwardsstart the enginethen release the brakes and have fun balancing the revs and choke and brake and throttle to ensure you don't whizz off at ungovernable and inappropriate speeds for car parks etc. Add steering into the equation and then you have some real fun and games where you need and extra pair of hands.Once the car has warmed up a bit and the choke goes back in then life returns to normal.Like many aircooled cars at this time of year you freeze your scrotum off driving the thing.Driving technique takes a while to get used to but when you are up and running brings a huge smile to your face - the engine races ahead of the speed of the car - like a 50cc modern motorscooter(which shares the transmission - CVT or 'variomatic' was invented by Daf) - 'overdrive' is reached by easing off on the gas when up to the desired speed and the transmission finds a happy medium.on the dash is a green button - pushing this 'locks' the cones in the transmission to fix the ratio and is used for very steep hills etc - pressing it not a good idea at speed and the button is in the middle of the dash in easy reach of passengers -llooks innoccuous enough and should really say "push me" most dafs have scraps of paper saing "do not push" blu tacked above it!

[michiel]

Cheers, I will save this!