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Project Aero.

Part 1.

Daffodil 32 Disaster, 2007-2009.

This is the history of this Daf.

The Daffodil was purchased brand new in Italy in 1966 by an American couple. He was stationed there in the Army and he bought it for his wife.
The couple took the car home with them 1 year later to Westminster, Maryland. The wife drove the car daily from 1967 to 1975.
In 1975 it was crashed into. The couple could not get rid of the car because of the wonderful memories so they stored it inside until 1988 (the wife had passed away in 1987).
In 1988 the car was taken to New Jersey and given to Kaz Wysocki (past DCA Director).
The original owner had purchased another 1966 Daffodil 32 in perfect condition from Europe to replace the smashed Daffodil.
Kaz removed a lot of parts and left the car under a tarp until late 2006. In 2007 I was given the Daffodil as a parts car.
That is where my story begins.

2007.

This DAF Daffodil 32 had been sitting there since 1988 on blocks and under a tarp.

It was T-boned in Maryland in 1975. Kaz Wysocki gave the car to me for parts.

Looks pretty bad from this side. The DAF 32 took a direct hit on the door pillar.

A very battered door and hood stuffed inside.

This is what is left of the Dashboard area.

It‘s too bad the damage was so extensive.
I brought the car home and decided to save it. A Type 32 is very rare in the USA.

Most of the parts were there, only damaged.

Here is my idea on what to do with the mangled DAF 32.

May 2008.

The begining of a Cabriolet...I chopped the top.

A nice clean cut along the back deck.

The front Right end and door is another story.
There is so much structural damage that everything has to be cut out.

Even damage to the door pillar was found and needs to be replaced.

Luckily a DAF "A" body is an "A" body no matter what year or Type.
Door pillar from a rotted 750 sedan was used.

The body is now somewhat squared up.

After some welding and patching I have a "Rolling Chassis".

The Passenger side does not look that great yet but at least I can roll the car out to work on it now.

Lots of "Swiss Cheese" on the Passenger side rear quarter panel.

Steel patches are being used to fill and will be skimmed over with filler.

Placed a large steel patch and gave it a good skim coat of filler.

Notice how the front wheel angles inward is major damage to front suspension, it has to be changed.

September 2009.

Decided that something needed to be done with this project.

After much deliberation I started stripping the front end.
I was not happy with the way the car was coming along, it has too much structural damage near the front passenger corner.

I took the cutters out and liberated the front clip from the rest of the body.
Off to the scrap pile for this part, but I‘ll salvage what I can.

I cut away some of the really bad floor board sections and trimmed the tunnel.

Next I brought in the replacement front clip. This is a front end from a 1963 Daffodil Type 30.
It‘s rough but straight, which the old front was not.

The entire clip temporarily in place. I overlapped the tunnel sections for extra strength and used the door to space the two sections.

From the rear the two halves have come together nicely.
It will be an interesting "Franken-DAF" when completed, half Model 30 and half Model 32.

This is what the "new" engine compartment looks like. Looks like lots of work here too.

Until the rest of the car is put together and braced properly I have welded tabs on the door to keep it aligned.

Lots of shims and jacks to keep everything level.

Here the two tunnel halves have been welded together.
The driveshaft tunnel is also the main support spine for the car so it had to be perfectly level as well as square.

Driver‘s Side top plate welded on tying inner and outer skins together.

Take a look at the ROT I have to deal with on the ‘63 front end. It will be a challenge.

I had to find out what was under all the rot, so off came the outer fender. It was NOT a pretty sight!

First order of business was to fabricate a new skin for the door pillar.

Along with the pillar piece a top corner support was also added. The holes for door hinges will be drilled out later.

Corner of Driver‘s side is now complete and has all new panels.

Even the Strut Support was rotted.

A brand new plate was added and new holes drilled for the Rack and Pinion steering box mounting.

Fender patch for the motor mount completed as well.

Test fitting the last big replacement patch in the wheel well.
This is the worst one to fit because it also the piece which supports the inside floors.

Driver‘s side wheel well finished.
All welding is done here and the car is remarkably stabile with just this one side complete.

I installed the door hinges and adjustment brackets in the new pillar so I can rehang the door.

The original Driver‘s fender from the 32 was in really good shape so it was just cleaned up and painted Black Stone Guard on the inside.

A lot of hole filling had to be done on the fender...side light hole, old mirror holes and the side moulding holes were all filled with weld with bondo over the top.

Next bit to tackle was the door sill are and attach it to the new metal. A few new pieces of metal and some wood to space it right.

Manufactured an outer door sill section to tie everything together on the Driver‘s side.

Door sill from the outside. I‘ll add another full length layer later.

This is my rendition of what the new front grill area hopefully will look like when the car is done.

I cut out the old turnsignal area and installing a panel that will hold the DAF 32 turnsignal housing.

The "new" type 32 turnsignal bezel welded in place on the old type 30 front panel.

For spacing and stability I bolted on the DAF 600 grille. Wow...it looks great.
This DAF will certainly be different looking from anything else out there.

This gaping hole was where the heat box went into the passenger compartment.
Since there will be no heat in the car something must be done about this hole.

A disc was welded in to seal the hole.
I also re-attached the original serial number plate from the Daffodil 32 right above (since I had sent my original serial number to Holland).

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