Sold my Gen 1 Viper about two months ago and wanted to get back into the Corvette world. The Viper was awesome and not sure there's a corvette other than the C2 split windows that could compete as a head turner, but I was ready for modern luxury again. You know, like antilock brakes and air conditioning!

I like to buy cars with history, that aren't perfect and with mileage. This way I can work on them a bit, drive them and sell them without losing money. (Most of the time). The C7 however will be my first rebuilt title and it's due to a flood claim from Harvey!

Found her on corvetteforum.com from a guy in Lexington Kentucky. It's a 2015 Z51 3LT fully loaded Vette. He rebuilt the engine with OEM cam, lifters, head bolts and head gaskets. He added Corsa exhaust, cold air intake and a DOD delete. The EBCM and carpet were also replaced. He triple flushed the ****** and changed the rear diff fluids.

Now typically I would never buy a rebuilt title especially site unseen but this was hard to pass up. He is a reputable poster who actually documented all of his work on the car a couple of years ago on the forum. Which made it easy for me to go back and look and know this wasn't a Gypsy on Facebook marketplace.

Met him in Memphis and drove it back to DFW without a hitch. Everything was flawless. We'll see how it performs in the future and how hard it will be to sell a rebuilt title once I'm ready to let this go. Just thought I would share with you guys since my wife doesn't care.

Any lingering issues that need to be addressed, or was everything taken care of during the rebuild?

Naveronski said:

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Any lingering issues that need to be addressed, or was everything taken care of during the rebuild?

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Nothing that I have found out yet. He out about 15k miles over 2 years on it. And I have driven it 400 miles without an issue. But I wouldn't be shocked if something came up. I'm going to do an oil analysis on the next change to see if there's anything unusual. But other than that I'm just going to cross my fingers.

Cool.

Knowing the background and having documented repairs is huge. When you go to sell, sure it will be more difficult, but you also can show them the same repairs and pics to help out.

Thanks for posting and keep us updated.

Any used car can be a roll of the dice, but especially a rebuilt/salvage title. I've seen it work out great, but last year I finally tried it for the first time on an Audi S7 and it did NOT work out. Electronics killed me.

Complete Idiot said:

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Any used car can be a roll of the dice, but especially a rebuilt/salvage title. I've seen it work out great, but last year I finally tried it for the first time on an Audi S7 and it did NOT work out. Electronics killed me.

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Electronics on an Audi? There's a better than even chance those problems had nothing to do with being a salvage car.

Cars can survive a good dunking much better than most people believe. Especially if it's fairly clean water.

Dirtbikers drown their bikes all the time. You pull the spark plug, turn it over so it spits out the water and you keep going.

All modern car computers are pretty much waterproof already, They are potted in a variety of silicone-ish goo. The thing that water gets to is switches, connectors, and wiring looms. It can cause weird corrosion issues if left unchecked.

SInce this thing has been running for 15k miles, I'd say the guy did an excellent job and you probably won't have much to worry about. You got supercar performance for Miata prices!

Dr. Nefario said:

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Complete Idiot said:

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Any used car can be a roll of the dice, but especially a rebuilt/salvage title. I've seen it work out great, but last year I finally tried it for the first time on an Audi S7 and it did NOT work out. Electronics killed me.

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Electronics on an Audi? There's a better than even chance those problems had nothing to do with being a salvage car.

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True, complex system.

In the case both driver's side doors were replaced, rebuilder SIAD he got some used doors and moved all internal parts into the new door shells - but I later discovered he got some used internal parts, like locks, and couldn't get them to work. Surprisingly - or perhaps not surprisingly for an Audi/German car - the locks have to integrate perfectly with the computer controls or things like automatic cruise control and emergency braking will be disabled with continual warning lights. You are at the mercy of the rebuilder, and many shady ones out there.

Tim Weaver said:

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Especially if it's fairly clean water.

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Uh…he said Harvey.

Fairview said:

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Tim Weaver said:

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Especially if it's fairly clean water.

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Uh…he said Harvey.

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Might have been an above ground pool.

My wife's Infiniti M37S was totaled sight unseen during Harvey and only the trunk and back floorboard got wet. I bought the car back (with salvage/rebuilt title) and sold it to my brother at cost, he pulled everything, dried it out for a week and he's had zero issue since.

I've been trying to buy it back since then. He did tell me at the time to just keep it but I also had a flooded house so I didn't want any worries from my wife hauling two babies around while also dealing w/ moving etc.

Fairview said:

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Tim Weaver said:

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Especially if it's fairly clean water.

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Uh…he said Harvey.

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A lot of the flooding was from straight up rainfall. I work in Montgomery/Conroe and we had lots of flooding here that had nothing to do with seawater or poowater.

might be a little older than you think

Tim Weaver said:

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Fairview said:

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Tim Weaver said:

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Especially if it's fairly clean water.

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Uh…he said Harvey.

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A lot of the flooding was from straight up rainfall. I work in Montgomery/Conroe and we had lots of flooding here that had nothing to do with seawater or poowater.

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We're right by White Oak Bayou and that's what flooded us but for insurance purposes on the house we treated everything that water touched as contaminated by black water. There is a treatment plant nearby but it's downstream so I doubt we had poo water.

Avoided my first $700 pitfall and it came at the hands of the DMV. When I went to register it they tried to tax me at a normal 2015 Corvette rate instead of what I paid for it. I had a feeling this may happen since they go by a computer appraisal system now and not what you say you paid for it.

So I asked if they make exceptions for rebuilt titles and the nice lady said "the system" knows. Lol. Ok! Asked if I could appeal it and she said I could take it to a dealer to get appraised and they would accept that.

So off the Classic Chevrolet in Grapevine which as luck would have it was the same place the vehicle was originally purchased. Ha! I had to explain the situation and they were happy to help me avoid paying extra taxes. They appraised it at $21,500 thanks to someone who understood the assignment.

So feeling vindicated I go back to the DMV only to draw the most pissed off short man in the history of pissed off short men. I knew I was ****ed when I drew his booth. So I go up with a smile and try to be nice and explain the situation and immediately he said he couldn't take the appraisal because the appraisal wasn't on an approves comptroller form! WTF!!!

So after nearly getting thrown out of the DMV for having the nerve to ask why they wouldn't inform me of this "special" form the first time I had to drive back to the dealership and ask them to fill out the form this time. Mind you I'm not buying a car so asking them to help me is like me begging someone for their sandwich scraps. But Classic was awesome and eager to help fight the tax Man!

Loaded with the new form and 16 other documents I returned to the DMV and was finally able to register and pay the tax on it. Thankfully the manager saw me come back in and shuffled me to her station and away from the angry midget.

So In the end I actually paid less due to them making me go get an appraised value from a dealer. Take that tax man!!

Nothing worse than going in to the DMV with every piece of documentation you think you need and they tell you no, you need one more thing - and knowing you not only went through the hell of the DMV office and accomplished nothing but that you will have to return.

Complete Idiot said:

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Nothing worse than going in to the DMV with every piece of documentation you think you need and they tell you no, you need one more thing - and knowing you not only went through the hell of the DMV office and accomplished nothing but that you will have to return.

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I used to fix and flip cars and bikes. I hardly remember a time where I didn't have to go back two or three times just to do the right thing and get the vehicle registered in my name before selling it to the next guy. It's no wonder why fake paper plates are so popular!

I would buy skip titles, non-running. maybe salvage title cars and bikes, fix them, get them legal and sell them in the course of 6-8 months. It was a way for me to drive a variety of stuff and have something to do with the extra long weekends I had at the time. I used to tour with a band and only worked thursday through saturday typically.

Now I have a 5 day a week job that is 45 minutes away. No more flippers for me......

Tim Weaver said:

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Complete Idiot said:

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Nothing worse than going in to the DMV with every piece of documentation you think you need and they tell you no, you need one more thing - and knowing you not only went through the hell of the DMV office and accomplished nothing but that you will have to return.

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I used to fix and flip cars and bikes. I hardly remember a time where I didn't have to go back two or three times just to do the right thing and get the vehicle registered in my name before selling it to the next guy. It's no wonder why fake paper plates are so popular!

I would buy skip titles, non-running. maybe salvage title cars and bikes, fix them, get them legal and sell them in the course of 6-8 months. It was a way for me to drive a variety of stuff and have something to do with the extra long weekends I had at the time. I used to tour with a band and only worked thursday through saturday typically.

Now I have a 5 day a week job that is 45 minutes away. No more flippers for me......

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I 'know a guy' that used to flip bikes but never registered them in their name. Is that still a thing?

It's a thing for all vehicles. Its called "Curbstoning". A lot of curbstoners will buy a car from copart or IAAI and fix them, then hand the buyer the salvage paperwork for them to deal with. You'd be surprised how good a totalled car can look after some basic work. New lights, replace that fender and grill and it's good to go. Who cares if the frame is bent or not! lol


Bikes are particularly bad about it. I've bought some that had 2 or 3 owners that never registered. (skip titles).

I love that slate gray color!

Complete Idiot said:

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Nothing worse than going in to the DMV with every piece of documentation you think you need and they tell you no, you need one more thing - and knowing you not only went through the hell of the DMV office and accomplished nothing but that you will have to return.

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absolutely. recently had to sell my deceased uncle's old used car. wanted to get title in my name prior to sale. I live in williamson county, car was in bell county with a valid inspection sticker.

williamson wouldn't let me pay them for title (heirship affidavit was fine) because bell county doesn't test emissions. i would have had to drive it to williamson county, get another inspection with an emissions test, drive back to bell county to sell it to my uncle's neighbor.

we just redid the forms with the neighbor as the grantee and left williamson county out of the mix. i mean, my fault for not realizing the emissions thing but still nothing makes a bureaucrat happier than telling you they can't help you.

Tomdoss92 said:

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Complete Idiot said:

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Nothing worse than going in to the DMV with every piece of documentation you think you need and they tell you no, you need one more thing - and knowing you not only went through the hell of the DMV office and accomplished nothing but that you will have to return.

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absolutely. recently had to sell my deceased uncle's old used car. wanted to get title in my name prior to sale. I live in williamson county, car was in bell county with a valid inspection sticker.

williamson wouldn't let me pay them for title (heirship affidavit was fine) because bell county doesn't test emissions. i would have had to drive it to williamson county, get another inspection with an emissions test, drive back to bell county to sell it to my uncle's neighbor.

we just redid the forms with the neighbor as the grantee and left williamson county out of the mix. i mean, my fault for not realizing the emissions thing but still nothing makes a bureaucrat happier than telling you they can't help you.

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FWIW, Mexico will buy anything.

I had a similar situation where I got a Minivan with my deceased Mother's name on the title and my Brother's signature since he was the executor with power-of-attorney. Well when she died, his POA ended and the signature on the title was void. I used it until the registration ran out, then sold it on Craigslist clearly stating the title situation. Two dudes in a truck showed up with a car dolly, paid cash and left. It took half a day from putting up the ad to watching it leave!