Meet Chris Rogers, who was a good friend of my father in the Body Hardware section of Engineering at BMC Zetland and is the man responsible for the design of the very unique and clever windup window doors in the Australian Mini. As well being the 50th anniversary of the Mini Deluxe and Cooper S, 2015 also marks the introduction of the Australian designed wind up window doors for the Mini.

I took this quick pic of Chris with his creation on Saturday at the annual BMC/Leyland Heritage reunion.

I just thought it was worth recognising his work and the work of other engineers at BMC and to show one of the faces behind the creation of our favourite car.

If you have ever cursed and sworn while trying to work on Mini wind up window doors then I'm afraid Chris the the one to blame!

His personal comment... “..there ain’t much room in there”

An interesting item Chris had kept with him from his days at BMC is this perpetual Factory trophy "For Pride in Performance”. Chris and his team in the Engineering section had actually won an award in March 1965 for their work on the wind up window design.

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

Thanks for posting this, its really good to recognise and remember the important role these 'old guys' played, and that shield is a great piece of memorabilia.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

Great story...get Chris to swab the shields with a mild solution of hot water and baking soda! (quick!) then dry quickly in sun...or with a hair dryer...or

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"Show me the Mini!"

Yes, there was discussion about getting it properly cleaned.

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

Thanks Tim,

On a side note, I can see you have a Morris J van. I was chatting to Chris about cars he had owned in the past and he was saying how many years ago he had a Morris J Van set up as a family camper.

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68 Morris Cooper S Mk1 (*ex 78 1275 LS 4th last built, 70 Morris 1500 OHC & 70 MiniMatic)

Is there a "Like" button around here somewhere,
cheers guys, great stuff

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Great, thanks for sharing, that is a fantastic photo.

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Flute - 68 MK I Cooper S
Member: VMCI #2474
Member: International Mini Model Collectors Club

Now we can get the bmc Leyland latest book

I was talking to the guys at the all British day about it and they said after they launched it at that event

On their website:
http://www.bmclaheritage.org.au/Shop.html

Did you buy a copy Phill?

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Them blue and white cars behind him look like wide body clubmans same sort of front grill just forget the name of the car

He's clearly a man of great taste too!

I'd guess he didn't have a very big family or have to travel very far to camp though

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

Always great to have a little of the human touch with things that were made on a production line. A great story, Phill.

There's a photo of the full-sized engineering drawing for the door on page 23 of the current issue of The BMC Experience magazine.

Also, on the Ausmini Facebook page are some photos of a modification that was done to the Mini doors to fix a design issue. A piece of wood is installed at a strategic point. Phill - I wonder if Chris Rogers knows about this modification? Are you still in contact with him?

See here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/250368238352982/

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

A Maxi I think

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Hi Phil
Great Mini chat story and it is so good to see these people who can still pass on all those details from the build days at BMC Australia.
Did you get any information on the door seals and pinch weld from the gentleman who was behind the wind up window?
Nice Work
Regards.

That's them the maxi when I first seen them I thought the front looked like a wide clubman with the grill and blinkers and parkers under the bumper bar looks same as a mini