In 1959 this Kelowna man proved Volkswagens really can float
If Doug Mervyn says a car can float, it’s best to take him at his word.
In 1959 he drove a 1955 Volkswagen beetle in that year’s Regatta Parade in Kelowna.
“At the end of the parade, I just drove down the boat launch into the water and drove around the lake for half an hour,” Mervyn told iNFOnews.ca. “After half of hour, I had about six inches of water in the bottom of the car and I thought, that’s enough.”
It was a stunt to promote his dad’s Volkswagen dealership — Mervyn Motors. And it worked.
“When I drove up the boat launch, after my first foray out in the lake, one of my potential customers came and banged on the roof of my car and said: ‘You told me they would float!’ She bought a car that day.”
That was in 1959 and he did it again the next year before retiring the car.
“The novelty was wearing off and we had other things to do,” Mervyn said.
He got the idea when he worked for a time at a Volkswagen dealership in Sydney, Australia where someone drove a VW bug under the Harbour Bridge.
“When I came home, my dad was the Volkswagen dealer and I went back to work for him,” Mervyn explained. “I said: ‘Hey, dad, let me take an old Volkswagen and do this to it.’”
His grandson, Lee Schurian, recently posted a photo of the car on the Old Kelowna Facebook page.
“All he did was grease the door seals, reroute the exhaust and attach a prop to the fan belt,” he wrote.
When contacted by iNFOnews.ca, Schurian said it’s a story that few in the family knew about and he wasn’t sure if he had the details right.
He had the basics right but his grandfather had a few more specific details to add.
“The first thing we did was, we welded a universal joint on the back of the crankshaft then put a shaft from that universal joint out through the bumper, put a steady bearing in the bumper and put a propeller on the back,” Mervyn said. “Then we took the exhaust from the muffler and turned it up and took it well above water level behind the car.
“We put dum dum (a sealant) in the heater vents so water couldn’t go in the heater vents and we greased the door seals. Then we sprayed protection on the ignition so it would run in the water.”
The car was put in the showroom between performances.
“A lot of people were interested in it so I got a little publicity for Volkswagen and how well they were built and the fact that they actually would float, which nobody believed until I did that,” Mervyn said. “They wouldn’t float as long as mine did but they did certainly float if they got in the water.”
In the end, all the components were removed and the car went back out on the lot and was sold.
This is, incidentally, the same Doug Mervyn who, along with Cliff Serwa, founded Big White ski hill.
Mervyn still skis there.
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