whatyacallit

Hey thanks 65fastback! I kind of like the slammed look. When she's complete she'll look like a pretty prom queen but I'll always know she's got the heart of a junkyard dog. The satisfaction of bringing something back to life that someone else discarded as trash or salvage creates a bond between the builder and the car that can't be bought. I'm not in the business of rebuilding cars. I'm just another car guy who gets off on tearing stuff apart and putting it back together (the right way). She'll be just as good as a non wrecked one once I'm done and actually better once I dig into the factory tune with my HP Tuners program and tweak it.

65fastback

Pretty serious "stance" definitely slammed look going on there!

Its true...my 65 mustang was a one owner grocery getter falling apart and neglected and unrestored until i got it 20 years ago , I spent almost a year painting it myself and building many different engine's and transmission combos over the years my hands have been on EVERY inch of that car many times over.

Its the only car ive ever owned i can't imagine selling.

Good luck with your build.

AORoads

Not doubting your word, but you talk of "doing it right", the right car, being open and honest, never selling for less than X%, etc. But, have you ever seen a rebuilt car done wrong? How wrong? Was someone trying to sell it? Did it sell?

I'm not doubting you and the cars you buy and sell. Why? Because if you were selling junk and telling people it was all done to X standards, and it wasn't---well, you live in TX. Down there, someone would coming looking for you, and they wouldn't be happy.

~Stingray

Totally disagree that there is NOTHING to worry about. Cars these days are precision machines; microns of tolerances. A totaled car could any number of small things out of spec that was not part of the damaged part or noticeable. A year of driving and all of sudden things start breaking from excessive wear. 30% less, I was thinking 50%-60%.

c6txvette

and absolutely no sane person would sell a decent, properly repaired salvaged/rebuilt title high end car for anything under 30%. I’ve been doing this for years and have been dailying my salvage title Z for the past 2 years and beating on it at that in Mexico with zero issues outside of tires from Mexico lol. My last Z was a salvage title C6Z that I bought and drove for 3 years. Bought wrecked with 18k miles and sold with 78k in 2015 again no issues. I could go on and on from personal experiences and there is a reason I’m stuck on them. Once repaired right there is NOTHING to be worried about.

c6txvette

a car repaired wrong will look the part and drive the part. There is no passing it off as done right. A shitty repaired car will look like a shitty rebuilt car period. There are plenty of them driving around everywhere and they are easy to spot. I’ve never had a **** repaired car bc I do it as a passion so to me it’s either factory perfect or it’s junk! My C7Z was absolutely destroyed! It was frame damaged, and burned. There was not a straight panel on it except the targa top, halo, and rear hatch. Every airbag was deployed, and suspension front and rear was trash and destroyed. If you look at it in person today it could pass easily as a 1 owner garage kept never wrecked pristine Z that belongs on a showroom floor! That is because it was PROPERLY repaired. For the record I have videos and pics of my rebuild in the event I decide to sell it, and yes I would disclose 100% everything including what it looked like prior to me rebuilding although that does not matter.

Fez64

My .2My .02
I am here because of this thread..Had a Miata with "shadow" branded title..title clean car fax said car was total loss when 2 ys old? 1997. I bought the cleanest NA I could afford, no issues no evidence of overspray welds nothing. One OEM sticker was gone. My guess it was stolen and needed a new fender, recovered a week later??? I can see a write off in 1997. Could I trade it, no, but a dealer wouldn't give a good price anyway. I sold it to a mature guy like me for more than I paid. He agreed it was the cleanest 100k+ mile stock Miata he saw all summer. Not hooned out...No mods, stock and clean an honest 10 footer that drives with no issues and cold a/c OEM cd cassette still worked Buyer was as happy with it as I was except he knew of the car fax issue that I found out on my own. ..laughed about almost every Duesenberg and multi million dollar 1960's Ferrari are rebuilt.

So is buying a clean title abut tired and worn out car with questionable mods a better value? Not for me. I don't coddle my cars, I don't abuse them either. They can be rebuilt we have the technology. You'd be surprised how many aircraft have had major repairs A man I knew buried his Mustang (P51) in a Indiana cornfield tail first. He's dead, the Mustang was sold rebuilt and it is flying again, I think is Sweden now.
.

If you need a loan for a C7 that has branded title you shouldn't be shopping for a Vette.
If you are buying a branded C7 it's not from a dealer (most states) so plan to sell it just like you buy it.

I'd happily pay $27,000 for a base C7 manual coupe with 50,000 ish miles and a few door dings. If it checks out to drive straight and not eat tires. I'd like an orange one or light grey.

Sids04

I beat my rebuilt/flood C7 M7 2LT like it owes me money. Park in the city ? Yup. Leave at the airport offsite lot for a week ? Yup.. I always pay cash for my cars. So far I have put 25k trouble free miles on it. Remember it doesn't say branded on the door.

Fez64

Are you done with it yet? Cheers

Sids04

Not until I find a Z06 with a dinged title lol

Kevin A Jones

No thank you, I have no interest in a salvaged title vehicles.

449er

I guess that in the current market, a salvage titled Corvette may be a bit more appealing to some folks if the price is right...not for me though

76-Vetteman

The production numbers of the C7 generation are small compared to other generations.

Looking at the ZR1, there were only 2,953 built. As market availability of these models fall, a time will come where the question will focus around availability, and not so much the condition of the title.

In a way, the Grand Sport will follow as it was the least produced C7 variant next to the ZR1.

I'm not a salvage title guy. But I can see how the numbers work in the favor of a buyer considering this route.

Good luck with your choice.

Jeff V.

Do you even know what a micron is?

Let me know what page of the service manual explains how many tens of millions of microns of slop are necessary to duplicate the panel gaps and chipped paint these cars came with from the factory.

9sec

if your serious I found a shop that rebuilds z06 and they only use oem NEW parts tear it all apart and rebuild it . mine will be 60k and retail was 78k from he bank

^&right

tech frined has people try to dump salvage titles on him constantly. He always refuses to put his name on it. Had a very nice S class that needed some' minor front end work' (entire front frame rail was literally torn from the car with the shock tower hanging. Has a late model Mustang convertible (flood car) sitting in his shop he refuses to work on. Owner is 5 weeks into leaving it there. Wayyyy too many guys are unscrupulous 'flippers' try and drop off higher end cars that need horrible amounts of work.

I won't say for a minute that many cars with a salvage title can't be rebuilt to proper spec and have zero problems. But, I've yet to see one in my experience. Most people want that quick buck. As for old valuable cars being torn down and rebuild, they are just that. The vast majority aren't starting as flood cars, or theft, or worse, something that deployed an airbag. Rust is the enemy there.

Good on you guys who do it right, but I'd have to have solid documentation before I paid for a dinged title car.

03ki11er

A lot of ignorance on this thread.

As someone who owns a rebuilt title C7 the price always depends on the buyer trusting the seller. I bought mine from a reliable poster on this site. One who documented the build. That type of rebuilt car will go for more.

The random Gypsy on Facebook marketplace is a tough sale to some. To others it’s worth the risk. In the end a rebuilt title is just a car an adjuster felt wasn’t worth fixing. That’s it. It’s up to you to understand what that means for the reliability of the car.

This is what I look for.

A. Miles/years after rebuild. Are you the first buyer? Are you putting the first thousand miles on it? Be aware if you are

B. Documentation. Can the seller show the work done with pictures, receipts etc?

C. Is the seller the rebuilder? It’s one thing if the seller isn’t the rebuilder but there are 10k miles on it post rebuild but it’s quite another where a rebuilder finishes it and then dumps it to an auction etc.

I paid $29k for a 2015 3LT Z51 with 32k miles on it. Paid cash as I always do and fully insured through Geico. Zero issues.