sperkins

Would the fact that a street car was at one point issued a salvage title hurt it's resale value as a track car? I would think that most people would consider it a non-issue, but I thought I would present it to the board for discussion.

gkmccready

I always worry about why it was a salvage title and how the frame was repaired if it was frame damage...

davidfarmer

Not to me, but documentation of the damage would certainly be nice to have. If every body panel was destroyed yet the frame was intact, I'd be 100% OK with it. Frame damae is fine too, but I'd personally want to know if the frame had been sleeved back together, etc.

tcmc5

Salvage title cars can be more difficult to finance and insure. That's an issue for some buyers.

L98Terror

Phoenix sells their salvage titled T1 cars for $10k less, at least that's what they told me when I called

OCCOMSRAZOR

I purchased a salvage car specifically to make it a track car. In my case, the car was a flood car, so no frame damage, mainly electrical. I would consider the history of the vehicle, but I would not be put off by a wrecked car provided it was repaired properly.

Case in point, I crashed my track car last year bending the frame and crunching the front end. The body shop I used had top-notch computer / laser frame equipment. The repair was done properly and the car was put back to spec. If you looked at the frame, you could not tell that there was ever a problem. The best thing is that the car drives great.

Because this great technology is available, if you had any questions about the straightness of the frame of a salvage car, you just find who has this equipment and have them check the frame out. They can tell you within +/- 1 mm how your frame actually is compared to technical spec.

These cars can be insured if you intend to drive them on the street. My insurance (Farmers) needed for us to agree upon the value of the car, (which was obviously less than a non-salvaged car.) However, after we came to agreement, they had no problem insuring it for any incident occuring on public roads.

Eventually the insurance issue became irrelevant. I finally acknowledged that all of the added safety equipment would not make the car safe nor convenient to drive on the street, so I dropped the insurance and now trailer the car.

I don't know about financing since we paid cash for the track car. Our philosophy was that we should be willing and able to walk away from the car if it ever gets destroyed. Now, if I crash it, I can just store it in the trailer until I have the funds to repair and I don't have a monthly payment to stick in my "cola" every month while it is in storage.

0Vector Vette

My car was built from a salvage car. In fact, most of the cars we have built were salvage cars. As long as it was repaired correctly, it shouldn't matter at all.

Zip Corvettes

But Robert you used Gorilla glue putting mine and yours together so does that really count.

drivinhard

If no frame damage, who cares

A straight frame C5/C6 salvage car is a perfect car to turn into a track *****

sperkins

Yeah that's pretty much what I think, but I needed to know that if I buy a salvaged title vette for a track car that I'll be able to sell it to another track junkie when the day comes without some enormous hastle. I'm looking at buying one that's in TN, but have no way to know about any frame damage/repairs without seeing it for myself and I'm in GA.

I don't really want to jerk the seller around until I know it's a solid car. Maybe I can make it up there pretty soon. Any volunteers to check it out for me?

exracer28

Where is it? Going racing this weekend but will some time next week.

Zip Corvettes

My car is a salvage roll over car. It sounds worse than it is but I would only build a salvage car unless I was made of money.
started as this once the body work was removed and the car stripped.
[IMG][/IMG]
Now it looks like this but still lots of work to do.
[IMG][/IMG]

sperkins

Hey John. The car is located in Murfreesboro TN. Not sure how far that is from you, but if you have some free time I would be more than happy to compensate you for your time and expenses (and thanks again for the tire donations!!).

ScaryFast

I asked this question a few months back, and someone (I think it was Mr. Farmer) commented that one of his championship winning cars was a salvage rebuild. IN other words, to echo what those above me have said, if repaired correctly it means nothing.

As for resale value, those who know won't care, but some people definately will. That doesn't mean you will get less money, just that you may have to sit on it longer until you get a buyer who understands.

gkmccready

When you say track car do you mean street-registered track car, or race car?

sperkins

It would be setup for HPDE's and such with full interior, but race capable in some classes with all the safety mods.

gkmccready

IMO, people are forgiving of race cars (with logbooks and history) that were built from salvage titles. Personally I'm always leary of a track car or streetable-track car that was a salvage title.

I say build it for what you want and don't worry too much about resale. By the time you sell it it'll be worth less than half of the build cost, anyway. :-)