Flood recovery vehicles... good only for parts?

PLEASE READ BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO BUY!!!!!!!

Ok, I have soem experience in this field. I bought 2 BMWs that were flood damaged. I bought a 1994 530ia and a 1997 BMW Z-3. They were both nightmares. I knew from the beginning it wasn't going to be cheap. In fact, I wouldn't have bought them if the previous owner didn't replace every single electronical part on the Z-3 and it STILL wouldn't run. Luckily for me, he forgot to switch out the EWS box, its a small box that reads the chip in the ignition key. Replaced and I got power to the engine, basically a rebuild on that and the car ran fine, with the exception of the mufflers gutting out of them on every breath due to corrosion setting in inside the muffler system. Got those fixed, then the cats went. Luckily somene took the car off my hand just under fair market value, since the title was not a slavaged vehicle. About 2 weeks after the sale the guy started having problems with the air con and brake system a few months later. The 530ia? I sold it for parts as soon as I got rid of the Z-3. My suggestion...........don't bother. Its not worth the headache. Now, if you can find a crashed one that has like front end damage that you can get at a salvage price and then buy the flood damaged one and basically transfer everything over. Thats a different story.

I forgot to mention that every switch in the car's door panels had to be replaced and an insturment cluster as well. Just that alone in a 308 can run up to a couple grand. Some of the switches sell in the neighborhood of $75 each if you are lucky enough to find even a used one. Just some food for thought.

 

In the "food for thought" frozen aisle:

If you're going to that much trouble, why wind up with one of 10^N 308s?

Build one from scratch. Heck, if the 308GT4 uses Alfa door handles, why can't someone build their own car, getting the highly machined parts from other models? Then you wind up with a one-of-a-kind unique machine.

The Ferrari marque began with someone who worked on Alfa race cars building his own machines. That's where most of the classic marques began: Not with a corporate conglomerate, but with an individual building his own.

And not even always the whole thing. The classic Cobra was born by fitting American Muscle to a British sports car frame. The Pantera took a plain US mill and build a car around it.

Anyone know the process it would take to get a one-off registered for the street? (Just pass local inspection, as long as it doesn't cross a border? You'd need crash testing to sell them, but to build just one?) (Just how much has the individual citizen been dis-empowered, relative to the big politician buying corporate monsters?)

(Does Farina/Bertone still do custom coachwork?)

 

Getting one registered is not really a problem, especially if you used a registered frame and have supporting documents of a 'legal' motor. This is how these kit cars get around the system. You could do the same. Pick up the water damaged Ferrari, put in custom guages and electronics, take out the motor and throw in a Chevy powerplant. It wouldn't sound like a ferrari, but you could tweek the engine a little easier, not to mention finding motor parts. It woulod still handle like a Ferrari and it would be a registered Ferrari if someone ever decided to check or sell the car. Only thing is, I wouldn't buy it for near the cost of an original one........but, you might get lucky if the price is right for the frame. Butch Hooper said he could get me a motor and tranny for a 308 totally rebuilt and ready to drop in the car for about $8000. If you go the body for $5-$10, you would still make out ok as long as you don't need allot of xtra stuff, but you will never know that until the car is up and running............

 

In my opinion the trick to making a salvage vehicle (flood, crash, fire...whatever) pay off would be to do almost all the work yourself and to use optional parts where ever possible. Not sub-quality parts just things you adapt to the project... VDO gauges, new wiring, custom radiator.. the list is endless. There are many sources and aftermarket parts that you can make work for the car. Work with local guys, local upholstery shops, local radiator guys, hoses from NAPA, make your own brake lines, plug wires that sort of thing. You'd go into chapter 11 if you farmed all the work out and bought everything from a dealer...it would be insane!
If your in the market for one of these cars obviously you like to work on cars yourself and enjoy the process of working on cars. A person could very well make it worth their while if they were willing to look at alternative ways of rebuilding the car.

 

What about something like the Hawk replicas of a Lancia Stratos: Original frame, engines typically from cars not sold in the US.

Actually, I was thinking more like a do-it-yourself pantera: A homebrew frame (welding classes anyone?) with a musclecar V8 mounted in the middle with an appropriate transaxle. With a one-off plastic or aluminum coachwork shell.

Taking the frame from an old wreck gives the bureaucrats in both the Registry and the insurance company a name to use, but borrowing a name for a unique vehicle just doesn't seem "right" to me: It's like calling a Ferrari a "Fiat", for insurance reasons: It's likely to bite you, sooner or later.

 

Where in MN are you. We live 40 miles SE of Duluth on the Brule river in WI.
I've noticed a number of guys showing up from MN latley...nice to see more guys from the region.

 

Actually, these cars can be brought into the US, to include engines. You can bring them in for 'race' or 'show' purposes. You just have to make them strret legal to run them on the road. So a motor is not really the problem as long as it meets smog requirements in your area and you have the proper paperwork to register the motor into what ever bvehicle you put it in. The problem is when you bring the frames in, then it gets registered to what ever it went to and if its not a US version, they get technical about the safety of the vehicle.

 

I don't do much in the cities car wise... maybe I'll look into it.
check out
www.kimmotor.com
www.italianauto.com
www.forza.weblobby.com
www.mostlybritish.com (call for ferraris)
www.ferrariservice.ws
www.ferraripartsexchange.com

I've never anything good about Autosource/ready to fix.com. They poach pics of cars off other dealers sites add them to theri own and try to sell you the subscription to their site. I don't think they even deal with cars...
I tried to track down a TR that was supposedly in MN from one of their sites..called every repairable place I could find and finally found out about the car through Donnybrooke racing. The car had been sold months earlier.

 

A good friend of mine had his Corvette flooded in its lifetime - the entire electrical system needed to be replaced, as well as the interior. He still has the car, and drives it often. Not that the vehicle hasn't had issues, but he loves the car and is an Electrical Engineer by trade, so.....

I'd take a flood car over a crashed/burned car anyday. Flood cars don't have bent frames, or bent bodywork. THAT"S expensive - disassembling a car and drying it out is just time-consuming. If all the car needs is water damage repair, then all the pieces/parts should be in fine shape if the metal bits are dried out and treated with silicone/WD-40 (I would think).

 

A frame you build in your back yard in the US is a US version, no?

I think that answers my original question, though. The idea of a frame that doesn't come from anything else is something nobody even considers.

It's like in the 70s, when I started asking about registering a hovercraft. The DMV pointed to the Coast Guard, and the Coasties pointed to the DMV. If we ain't got a form for it, it can't be done.

"Free Dumb of In Formation act"

 

Ok, I will give you an example. If you have a US 308 registered in whatever state you live in, you decide to change the motor. You buy one on Ebay and its located in Europe. As long as you have the owner's papers for the motor, you can import it. The government will expect the local safety inspection station to make you conform to EPA laws to properly get numbers to match on the vehicle's registration. Now, if you decide to bring in a Skyline GTR from Japan, the US government will earmark that vehicle for Show or Race only, until you get the car to meet DOT standards. The feds will inspect it later to make sure it has safety glass, catalytic converts, etc......before they will allow you to register the car for street use. So, if you have a registered frame for say a VW and you bring in the roll cage of a lamborghini in and all the body parts from an original lambo to include a lambo motor etc......you only have to registered the vehicle as a VW, but you will have to pay the insurance differences of a modified vehicle and if you want something like stated value for the car. Clear?

 

Painfully.

Are you aware that a car frame is welded metal, that unibody construction isn't the only way, and that any well equipped welding shop can put together a tubular frame from scratch?

People build tube frame aircraft (ultralight and "regular") in their garages from a set of blueprints.

But the idea of building your own car from scratch is apparently such an alien notion in modern society as to prevent communicating the idea.

Shades of "Newspeak". (The Maser "Birdcage" is spinning in its grave.)

How about an example back: The semiconductor industry has expanded to a global operation, with different elements of production and assembly taking place in specialized plants in different parts of the world.

But .... one of my college lab assignments was to build a transistor. With a slab of silicon, a couple dabs of gallium arsinide and a Bic cigarette lighter. (The electric doping oven wasn't working.)

It wasn't the best gain, and the junction was rather resistive, but it worked. (And no, my name isn't "McGuyver". )

Technology is a human endeavor -- not something Merlin does in the hidden dungeon.

Don't mistake the cost-efficient mass-production way for the only way ... or even the best way (unless cheap products is the goal).

 

Check some aircraft kit sites/magazines about composite and carbon fiber home construction for the coachwork.

Any auto glass replacement company should have lists of glass dimensions for various models. (Also: kit planes need glass, too.)

 

I have a 2012 Ferrari FF that has recently experienced minor flooding. We had a hurricane in Atlanta a few weeks ago and as I was driving SLOWLY through a puddle the car choked out and wouldn't start. No water made it to the interior as it was only about 3-4 inches high. They said it's hydralocked because it won't start....the insurance company is going to total it out and asked if I wanted to keep it for $28K....should I try to keep it and repair it??? or just let it go????

 

If you keep it, allow at least:
Long Block for $33,900 used
Short Block for $15,000 used
Plus labor + minimum 30% diminished value + it will forever be known as the " flood car "

Back in 2019, we had a couple 70th anniversary cars sustain tornado damage in the owners building, those sold as flood damage, but other than cosmetics, were mechanically fine.

Me, I would do it, but that's just me. I am sure many others will say let it go...

S

 

Thanks for the advice. I just heard back from the insurance company today and they're offering roughly $56,000 after the lien is paid off. So I could let it go and pocket $56K or keep it and pocket about $27K. If I keep the car and find a way to get it fixed for under $30K I'll have my FF paid for. I LOVE the car and would love to keep it but I would hate to find that I couldn't get it running again for $30K (all-in) when I could have walked with almost $60K. This is a tough one

 

Is there any way a mechanic can check to see if the engine is actually hyralocked for sure???? What are the chances of it being repairable instead of replaced??

 

Yes there’s a way, but it’s going to cost you several thousand dollars in labor. Disassembly of the engine is not cheap.
Now, if it were me, and it’s probably what has already happened, I would pull spark plugs out of the front four cylinders and put a scope down the port, and see if there’s water ( or signs of water ) in those cylinders

due to the positioning of the intake on the FF, if the filters are soaked with water, there’s a very strong chance that Water made it all the way to the cylinders. even if water made it into just a couple, you’re still looking at a large repair

I would not gamble on a simple fix


Maybe take their money, and buy one of the other FF for sale here on FC


Good luck no matter what you decide.

S

 

Thanks again for the advice and info...I did a little thinking and have decided to just take the $60K and try to get another one later. I don't want to unknown to become a financial burden. As much as I really loved that FF I think it's smarter to just get another one down the road or maybe save up and get a 458 . THANKS!!!