While not a member of the Central West Car Club, Scott Jefferay is the owner of this interesting dune buggy and it's through his family links to the club and their involvement that this story came about.
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It begins about 10 years ago when Scott was living in Gympie and spotted the buggy for sale. It was in nearby Caboolture so he bought it as a daily driver.
According to his father, Dick, Scott drove it around for a couple of years then parked it up - it could be said that maybe he drove it too hard and maintained it too little!
Move forward to 2018 and Scott moved to the NSW coast and in the process the buggy ended up at Dick's place in Parkes.
It's a Kalita Dune Buggy and not a lot is known about them except that like numerous other similar beach buggies, they are a custom fiberglass body shell mounted to a VW floor pan.
From the little bit of information around about the Kalita it appears they may have been built on Queensland's Sunshine Coast in the 1970s or possibly the '80s in a few different formats, with long-wheelbase (LWB) and short wheelbase (SWB) models with the open roof or T-top roof.
Scott's is a SWB T-top roof model on a 1965 Beetle floor pan. It has a 1600cc VW motor with standard Beetle running gear. The wheels are 14 inch and the bigger diameter rear tyres give it some extra ground clearance.
"The Kalita never really looked this good until impromptus happened late last year," Dick laughed.
Scott had been evacuated from his home in Harrington during the bush fires and it was decided that they needed a project to keep him occupied. By all accounts, it soon became a Jefferay family affair.
Scott and Dick worked on the mechanicals. Scott's twin brother Richard did the bodywork and painting, Richard's wife Melissa came up with the custom blue pearl paint by mixing a glug of silver with two glugs of leftover blue until it looked just right, and mum Shirley became the time-line manager to get the thing out of her shed!
It was done in six weeks except for some final work on the brakes.
"Scott's gone home and the Kalita is still here," they chuckled.
Once he does get it home Scott is looking forward to getting the buggy onto the sand where it's meant to be, and who knows, maybe one day he may even join the CWCC with the rest of the family!
Coming up: Central West Car Club would like members to consider going along to a drive-in movie for a great cause March 21-22 in Dubbo. Tickets are $40 per car and selling quickly. Visit www.westviewdrivein.com.au.
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