salvage title in CA; should i restore? thots please.....

[plothead]

team-

been off the boards for a long while; still have my bronco.

long story short:
have a 1970 sport with a salvage title.
was driving one day over 10 years ago when the engine caught on fire.
insurance title paid out but declared it salvage.
bought it back from them for $500

only things destroyed were:

• engine
• hood
• dash
• engine electrical
• dash electrical

the frame and body and the rest are just fine.

once restored to looking good and driving, i don't ever plan to sell, and frankly am not so worried about getting what i put in back out if i ever do sell.

i can get full insurance (collision, liability, theft, fire, etc), so if fate takes her again i will be covered for my stated/agreed value.

that all noted, should i restore and rebuild the bronco?

any reason i'd be a fool to do so?

thanks for the advice (and opinions ) in advance......

best,
c

ps-wasn't sure where to post this....hope i got the right forum

 

[NC-Fordguy]

Getting collision on a salvaged titled vehicle can be a problem in states I'm familiar with. I'd double check and get it writing.

 

[thegreatjustino]

Might want to read through this thread

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213382

 

[Justafordguy]

If you can get insurance/registration and don't plan to sell it I don't see why a salvage title would make any difference at all. I'd restore it.

 

[markw]

Plothead, I've got a '68 with salvage title as well. PO took it off the registry rather than pay non op. I'm guessing at some point it won't really matter as long as the restoration is documented and a person can obtain insurance. We'll see.....

 

[Timmy390]

Rebuilt/salvaged titles are more and more common now days. I've looked at several 2000 plus year models that were salvaged/rebuilt. You must be able to insure them else they wouldn't be so many of them for sale.

I have a 98 Cavalier that's been hit more times than a poorly trained boxer. On the last hit, the insurance company "totaled" it due to the $1800 damage (sheet metal, paint, bumper and labor). I bought it back for $300. The insurance company just cut me a check and said "you keep the title you have". My insurance liability, theft, fire didn't change.

Still using it as my runabout........

Tim

 

[DirtDonk]

Agree. No reason not to restore it if you want to.
My '04 Regal is a salvage title and one of the nicest cars I've owned. Insurance is no problem, though one of the companies said they don't insure salvaged cars.
According to the KBB values, some cars suffer a loss of value by a whopping $50 to $500 dollars for a modern car. Not much of a hit really.
Maybe in a specific narrow collector car market, the value would be less, but there's no way to tell with an EB, with values being all over the place anyway. And you're not going to sell it anyway, so that aspect is not even a concern.
But you better make sure you insure it for a LOT more than you think, or that a lot of insurance companies would offer to do it for upon initial sign up. You might have to be very specific with them that this is not a $1000 46 year old truck anymore.

Paul

 

[Rustytruck]

Its worth more properly repaired with a salvage title than sold unrepaired with a salvage title. I wouldn't do a concourse restoration paying someone 75,000 with hopes of getting that kind of money back on top of ownership of the truck. A clean street or trail rig I would go for it.

 

[plothead]

gang-

thanks much for the thots...and links.

the OaklandBronco/Heartbroken thread pretty much shows exactly what my ride looked like after....

reality is if this happened today (was back in 2004) insurance would consider fixing it or i would cause the value has increased so much in the interim....

cant figure out how to upload screen shot......but as to insurance, i've got emailed copies of chat transcripts (w/ customer/rep/chat session id's) from Heritage that states they absolutely insure salvage titles for stated/agreed value. they also cover it during the rebuild, if i want....actually did it two times with separate reps to verify

sending it out later this month for the the start of body work...wish me luck and thanks again

c

ps-how do i upload an image? it wants a url when i select to insert image and i can't find a way to get it to upload from my hard drive to this post...(no option)

 

[sykanr0ng]

gang-

thanks much for the thots...and links.

the OaklandBronco/Heartbroken thread pretty much shows exactly what my ride looked like after....

reality is if this happened today (was back in 2004) insurance would consider fixing it or i would cause the value has increased so much in the interim....

cant figure out how to upload screen shot......but as to insurance, i've got emailed copies of chat transcripts (w/ customer/rep/chat session id's) from Heritage that states they absolutely insure salvage titles for stated/agreed value. they also cover it during the rebuild, if i want....actually did it two times with separate reps to verify

sending it out later this month for the the start of body work...wish me luck and thanks again

c

ps-how do i upload an image? it wants a url when i select to insert image and i can't find a way to get it to upload from my hard drive to this post...(no option)

For that you have two choices:

1. Become a contributor to the forum for $12 a year.

2. Upload the pictures to an image hosting site like Imgur or Photobucket then use the URL from there.

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34373