TOPIC: Mercury Documentary

Have you guys seen this video?

Great movie, well worth watching. Thanks zonaman

or this one?

Quite a fellow eh? Any of those Thors still around?

was thinking the same thing...how neat it would be to run across and Old Thor...that would be so sweet...

check this out pictures of lake x

www.propnut.com/LakeX/0.htm

if you click on "home" it will take you to the main page.
TONS of info

hope this helps

woosterken

Great slide show.

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but there sure were a lot of Raveau boats used by merc for testing. The last few are being built as we speak by Bob Walwork, one of the original Lake X test drivers. I was very fortunate to meet him last year at an ACBS event (Hammondsport NY). One heck of a guy! That's him in a tiller control Power Cat in the bottom pic...

mysite.verizon.net/walwork/

Quite a fellow eh? Any of those Thors still around?

Got one hanging in my shop, I'm guessing it's a 1939?

One of these days I'm sneaking mine on to Lake X!

Very cool! Where do you live?

I wonder if the old Lake X is open for boating, and/or who owns it now? The new Lake X is purpose built and in TX I believe.

Frank

I'm located in Rochester NY. I missed meeting Mr Walwork at Hammondsport this summer. I wanted to shake his hand. He was really helpful to me as I fixed up this Raveau. Matbe next year! My buddy met you, however, and told me he was really impressed with you and your boat! I think the old Lake X is privately owned. The proprietors would probably frown on me sneaking onto their lake. Still, it would be cool to run an old Raveau there one more time!

I think somebody is trying to brain wash the OMC guys with these.
Great stuff but not for me. I can work on any OMC motor old or new with just hand tools and that is the way I like it.
Mike aka pathfinderz1

I agree the Johnnyrudes are a little easier to work on, but the Mercs have a "mystique" all their own. Variety IS the spice of life, I like to sample and experience as much as possible. Proud to have brought both back to life, would tackle either again whenever given a chance.

THall wrote:

I'm located in Rochester NY. I missed meeting Mr Walwork at Hammondsport this summer. I wanted to shake his hand. He was really helpful to me as I fixed up this Raveau. Matbe next year! My buddy met you, however, and told me he was really impressed with you and your boat! I think the old Lake X is privately owned. The proprietors would probably frown on me sneaking onto their lake. Still, it would be cool to run an old Raveau there one more time!

We have old friends that live off Sea Breeze Drive in Irondequoit, so we got to Rochester usually once a year, sometimes more.

I'm sure Bob would love to see your boat. He's a top notch fellow, but you already know that if he's been assisting you with the restoration. Where did you find your Raveau?

Who was your buddy that met me? Our Power Cat wasn't too impressive last July, but will be next year. I didn't get it dialed in till September. It's dialed in now!

Be careful sneaking into Lake X. Word is it's guarded by monster alligators...

Frank

pathfinderz1 wrote:

I think somebody is trying to brain wash the OMC guys with these.
Great stuff but not for me. I can work on any OMC motor old or new with just hand tools and that is the way I like it.
Mike aka pathfinderz1

I know what a Mercaholic is but what is OMC ?.......haha

And OMC guy is someone that knows what a good motor is Johnson Evinrude. To be trueful I have only had one Merc and it was a Mark 25. But had to make a spaner type wrench to get the lower unit apart and the same for the water pump. The fum was taking the cowl apart just to get to the motor. Sure would hate to have to do something on this motor out on the water. Never got it running but traded it for a Evinrude that was easy to get running.
Mike aka pathfinderz1

Geez Mike, here we are on the merc outpost and yer dissin mercs. J-rudes may be easy to work on, but mercs are faster. Each to their own buddy!

Frank

Really dont mean to hurt anybodys feeling. I better get out of here and go back to JEGO site were I belong. I do like the looks of the Mercs just don't want to work on the older ones
Have fun guys
Mike aka pathfinderz1

You can see those PLUS more under this thread. Feel free to add to this thread. It might take a minute to upload for some of you, anyway cheak it out!!! www.fiberglassics.com/glassic-forums/nbr/any-interesting-youtube-videos#16613

PS Some may be worth viewing, some perhaps not....

These are neat videos, but if you really want to know who ECK was, you need to read Iron Fist The life of Elmer "Carl" Keikheafer. It is really a "must" read for anyone interested in life in general. It is far more than just about the mercury. The man was a brilliant nut case, I would loved to have been at one of his dealer retreats, where he would hang a brand new Evinrude upside down & burn it. (and I like Evinrudes) NASCAR is what it is today because of ECK. He took it from being a hillbilly sport to being a multi billion dollar industry. He worked with Purlator to create the world's first dry paper air filter. He needed it for his race car engines. Now every car built on the planet uses them. He would have been screwed without Charlie Strang, his top engineer. ECK actually forbid his engineers to work on anything but his NASCAR engines during the mid 50s. Mercury was going to loose ground to the OMC V4, but Carl didn't seem to care. Strang secretly had the machinists slap together 3 MK 20 blocks and crankshafts to create the 1st inline 6 of 60 hp. All behind Carls back. This was the only way to make more power than the OMC V4 was going to produce, without a major retooling - which would have blown the cover. The inline six was not intended to be a permanent solution, but it worked so well that they kept building them. As for Brunswick - ECK hated them with a passion & only wanted capital for growth. Brunswick immediately tried to "tame" Keikheafer, and in the process almost ruined Mercury. ECK soon left Mercury to try to create a new direction which he did - with a series of the most powerful V8 offshore racing engines ever built, at the time.

The book is out of print, but it can be found on eBay & Amazon. It is a great book to read over the winter

awesome...I have been seein ghtis book a few times and kind of wondered what it was really about.
may have to try and pick one up.