Strange Mercury Lower unit mods?

[crackedglass]

I looked at a used Mercury 500 today, about a 1970 or so model. I needed some parts so I figured it might be a good donor motor. What I found was a motor that had been stripped of all bolt on parts, it had some sort of billet stator ring and flywheel ignition, a completely stripped down and cut mounting bracket with only the base swivel mount remaining, no cover, shroud, or any other trim, and most obvious of all, all of the lower fins and av plate were ground off, smooth, the lower unit was ground to the point where the leading edges were sharp. The prop was billet and had very thin blades, nothing like anything I've ever used. The power head was seized, or at least something was locking the motor, so I let it go, there wasn't much there I could use for my motor anyhow since I needed a good long shaft lower and that was a short shaft.

Any idea why anyone would grind all the fins off a lower unit? I can half understand making the lower more hydro dynamic but don't those fins serve some purpose?

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Strange Mercury Lower unit mods?

getting thru weeds????? under water mower.