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David – a great find, and even cooler that you know its history, looks to be in good shape too. (The super fragile Lucite shark on the hood is intact!) I love these motors and have the 12hp and 16hp models with the same "George Jetson" styling – also several of the WB Elgins including a ’58 35hp.
Mechanically they are excellent and easy to work on too – in most cases they run faster than their OMC and even Mercury counterparts – they are also reasonably quiet and smooth. I’ve gotten comments from people who think the ’58-’62 WBs are "uglier than a palsied wart hog," (actual comment!), but I think they are way cool looking. The fact they don’t appeal to everyone and are the "Rodney Dangerfield – don’t get no respect" outboards of the classic era just makes them even better in my estimation!
With the exception of Rusty M’s super awesome Golden Shark and Jim M’s fleet of WB 7.5hp Elgins, I wish more of them showed up at our Yankee Chapter meets. As I’ve spent more time running and playing with them, these West Bends have really become my favorite motors of the classic era. Enjoy it!!