The reproduction Props are potentially the most dangerous part to fail. They are not made of the correct material. They are very brittle and many have inexplicably failed without impacting anything. I have experienced this myself and when I brought this up, my customer was immediately blamed for the failure and no apology, replacement or refund was offered. I was shocked! I was told they needed the old prop pieces back. My customer was too busy trying to get his Amphicar with his 3 year old on board back to safety as he had no idea what the problem was so he was not looking for prop pieces in the water. He was looking for safety for his child.
Just last week friend had the reproduction prop on his car fail (split in 2 and shed the entire prop) without warning or contact with anything as it was in 200' of water. It started out as a slight vibration then quickly ended with the catastrophic failure of the repop-prop. The photos of the failed prop clearly show why it failed. The brittle plastic used rather than the correct nylon can not handle the vibration nor cold water and are poorly made. You can see the void (the dirty area in the cracked portion) that was in this prop. The dirt shows that this large void that drastically weakened it was there from production and NOT from an impact. This shows little if any quality control is employed during production. It broke in half and left the owner traveling in circles with his scarred family (including 1 child) on board. At least one lady now refuses to ride in the Amphicar at all due to her experience. His remaining repop-prop is now relegated as an emergency TEMPORARY spare only.
The original props are designed to absorb heavy impacts or shed a single blade leaving you with some control. DO not believe the hype that those stress cracks somehow diminish the integrity of an original, it does not! I have beaten the crap out of an original prop with many stress cracks in it with a hammer on concrete floor and I could not get it to break. Dented and beaten it's still viable. It took a mere 4 hits by the same hammer to snap the repop-prop in half exposing a large defect Inside.
When you loose the entire prop, you have zero control. Imagine you are on a river without control, you could be rolled over on rocks, shallow water or a dam. Terrifying at best. I will NEVER use nor install a reproduction prop on another car. I refurbish the originals and install them. To the best of my extensive knowledge, there has never been and original prop experience a catastrophic failure such as this (a single blade as designed but not the entire prop), but I know of many examples of the reproduction props failing. The originals have been safe for 50 years and still remain the only choice for me. Many others feel the same way I do but choose to keep quiet. When I 1st had this problem several years ago, I was inundated with private emails from others who also had the same experience with these repop-props but felt like they had to remain secretive about it. I was personally attacked (one man surely has mental deficiencies and since mysteriously and without explanation left the board) for voicing my concerns at the time and it cost me dearly. This is a shame! Somebody will get hurt or worse, then what will happen??
Any reproduction part should not just look the part, it MUST perform safely and reliably. Use of the correct and not cheaper materials is the key. Our concerns need to heard and rectified before a tragedy happens.
It's not personal, it's a safety issue like the shocks and other parts. I don't mind paying premium prices for premium parts but I do mind paying good money for substandard parts.
