2007-Purchased in July by Dave Margison from Lee Wellington at 'Airport Car Storage' Cairns, Queensland this Moke was destined for greatness.
In October of that year Dave Margison decided to 'mail' the Moke,now named 'Airstor' to Canada. Alan Margison was to be the recipient. Alan was about to retire and when Dave mentioned a Moke as an addition to the family to his wife Jean she thought it was a good idea and would keep the retiree from moping about uncontrollably. However the first time Alan got wind of this was when I mailed him the badge off the Moke along with the text 'sending you the rest of this under separate cover'. Alan was greatly unimpressed by this out-of-the-blue decision to fob him off with a 'headache'. However it was much too late for protests or second thoughts as the Moke had left the port of Brisbane and was experiencing life on the ocean waves as it sailed nonchalantly in a container on a ship to Taiwan.
Its unscheduled two week delay in this port caused severe challenges as Alan and Jean had booked to visit the U.K. and were not dockside Vancouver to greet the Moke after its successful sea voyage. Their very good friend Garry came to the rescue and was on site to welcome 'Airstor' as it emerged from the container. The Moke was trailered and left outside Alan and Jeans house in Victoria, Vancouver Island. Upon his return from the U.K. Alan took pity on the Moke and decided to adopt it and transform it into his idea of how a Moke should be. And this of course started with a RHD to LHD conversion.
Well, after 6 months of no time at all to mope and lots of hard grafting the transformation was astounding and beautiful. But it didnt' stop there by golly, not by a long chalk. And a very long chalk is exactly what would be needed to write down the list of marvellous mind boggling modifications that were dished out without respite in further' fast and furious' transformations. And it came to pass that at this first fully finished point in time the contents of ' Airstor's' engine bay caught fire along with most of the wiring, the dashboard, the front seats and the bonnet. Woe, woe, and thrice woe! This devastating setback and subsequent rise from the ashes will be the subject of another article in 'NQ Mokes' the totally different website for all Mokees besotted and otherwise. Look out for 'Phoenix - Forlorn to Ferocious' an episode to remember.
