“HAYLEY HAS DRIVEN HER DAILY-DRIVER VW MORE THAN 50,000KM IN TWO YEARS”
as clean-up the chrome.”
The Bug’s new paint is a poppier, slightly brighter colour than the original Birch Green. “I chose the green from a colour catalogue and it’s two-pack paint,” she explains. The interior trim, too, is original-style but not original: Hayley personalised her car a little more by replacing the original drab interior with a warmer two-tone brown… what a new-car brochure might describe as ‘oatmeal and barley’! Vee-Dub freaks might notice Hayley’s is a base-spec Bug, so was built in VW’s Australian factory in Clayton, Victoria, without any chrome strips on the dashboard and only a partial headliner: the B-pillars and the areas around the rear side windows are painted rather than trimmed. Outside, there’s bumper over-riders and classic whitewalls – and that terrific period-style roof-rack – to give the Bug some extra bling.
Somewhat surprisingly, Hayley’s Bug carries full registration and is a daily driver, not just a sunny-Sunday cruiser, and she drives it for work in retail support almost every day. In fact, Hayley has driven her minty green Volkswagen more than 30,000 miles (50,000km) since the restoration was completed around two years ago. Yes, really! That’s more than many late-model family cars! Maybe that isn’t so surprising… VW Beetles were being driven just about anywhere in the Aussie outback that a Land Rover could go in the 1950s, 60s and 70s and as many owners (including, of course, me!) will happily agree, these cute smiley classics remain a joy to drive and with attention given to maintenance, perfectly reliable.
“It runs really well and I’ve haven’t had any dramas with it,” says a happy Hayley who has christened her car Baymax. “I haven’t had to put tyres on it yet. All I do is put petrol in it!”
For now, she’s having her Bug serviced elsewhere but is learning more about the mechanicals with the intention of doing simple and regular maintenance tasks – such as oil changes – herself. As well as daily-driving, Hayley takes her Bug to just about every classic-car or VW get-together within coo-ee of her Central Coast, NSW, home. At car shows and pub nights, she’s known not only for her green Bug, but the effort she puts into her terrific ‘pin-up girl’ fashion!
As with most car enthusiasts, Hayley’s ambitions don’t stop with just one cool car – she’s recently bought another VW, an early 1960s Type 3 wagon. Known by VW junkies as a square-back, her Type 3 – with similar mechanicals to the Beetle, but a larger and more conventional-looking wagon body – is a little bit special in being a recently imported trophy-winner from Europe and left-hand drive.
But even with her new cruiser ta k ing up some of her attention recent ly, when asked what her dream Volkswagen is, she looks to her green Beet le and answers wit hout hesitation: “I a lready own it! ”