How it All started

The Moke has been in my possession for over 5 years. It was originally my grand father who had the moke. He had 5 actually using them as renting cars in his car renting business. The business did not do so well and it my auntie used the car for a couple of years in which she had a bad accident in which she bumped into an electric pole. In fact filler and other dents are still present.

My Grad father passed away 6 years ago and I still miss him dearly. The moke was under a whole heap of anything u can imagine. He collected and kept anything he liked, I guess all people of his age do so. When I saw the moke it immediately caught my eyes and told my dad to take it home. I was only 12 back then I guess I liked the idea of a car with a jeepy look and no roof. After a bit of persuasion the moke was home and o boy I was happy.

I left the car in the garage with no particular interest for several years but a couple of weeks ago we where clearing the garage of the old house where I lived my youth, I decided it was time awake the sleeping moke.

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And the moke’s finally Home !!!!!!!!

After weeks of nagging my father to get the moke it’s finally home. He woke me up this morning and told me “let’s go for it”. That’s a good way to start the day!!!!!! We got his work van and pushed the car onto the trucks after wasting half a gallon of oil and cutting the break cables it was finally on the van. It’s now in my garage and I’m dying to start working on it but I promised my mum ill finish my exams before so I’ll just have to stare at the baby for now

The body looks ok, but there is a piece of sheet metal over the original floor, might get the scare of my life when those are off. The sub frames look quite ok although I can’t really see them before their out. Rust between welding panels is a bit of a worry but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.

Last few parts getting painted for rear subframe

Today after my lectures I came home prepared to finish the last bibs and bobs left to be prepared for the rear subframe. I first started by giving the rubber donuts a good clean by using the wire brush attachment on an electric drill. This removed the lose rust but paint and rust where still left. I then used a sanding attachment to sand down the remaining rust and paint. The bare metal was finally showing and I was done of sanding. I then painted a layer of rust converter which removed the remaining layer of rust and I had a nice shiny metal finish. And the prep of my rubber donuts was finally finished.

The mini suspension cones where prepped in a similar fashion. I removed the under seal and all the layers of paint with a spatula. A good clean with a wire brush immediately gave a good shiny finish as no rust was present due to the fact that they are not mad of metal but aluminum.

I then cleaned the surface with a detergent and painted on the first layer of etch primer I will paint the high zinc base coat and finish in the next couple of days.

So, what exactly is a Mini Moke?

What follows is an excerpt from "A Guide to Mini Mokes", published by The Mini Moke Club in 1997. The book is still available from the club and is highly recommended reading if you are contemplating purchasing a Moke, already own a Moke, or just interested in this most unusual of the Mini derivatives.

Far from being a generic term for a boxy, very fun, open vehicle, "Mini Moke" or "Moke" means only one thing: A little piece of motoring history. Contrary to popular belief, they were never available in kit form, but have always been factory produced using a steel monocoque body pan mounted on Mini sub frames and powered by an "A" series Mini engine/gearbox unit. Be it England, Australia or Portugal, they have always left the factory fully assembled.

The Mini Moke was designed by Sir Alec Issigonis at the same time as the Mini Saloon. The first pre-production prototype was produced in 1959 and a handful of other prototype Mini Mokes were made up until 1964, including a couple of four wheel drive versions with two engines. Some of these prototypes are still in existence .

The first production Mini Moke was manufactured in January 1964 at BMC's Longbridge factory in Birmingham, England. Production continued until late October 1968 when around 15,000 English Mokes had been produced.

Production then switched entirely to BMC's factory in Sydney, Australia, where they had been producing the Moke since 1966. A number of specification changes had been made to suit the local conditions and the growing leisure vehicle market. The Mini Moke continued to be manufactured in Australia until early 1982.

In 1983 production restarted in Portugal with British Leyland. Initially the final Australian specification was used, but this was substantially revised in 1986, and under the control of Austin Rover Portugal, continued until mid 1989.

The manufacturing rights for the Moke were sold in 1990 to the Italian company Cagiva, who produced practically identical Mokes in Portugal from 1991 through to early 1993, when the last Mini Moke was made.