Flood damaged 914, Ouch Options

[GeorgeRud]

A friend of mine just moved down to Baton Rouge, LA last month, and had his cars in storage as they were having a large garage built at their new home. Of course, they were involved in the flooding up to the top of the windows. Besides his 914 2.0 and his Porsche tractor, he last a Jaguar XKE, Jensen Healy, 67 Ford Mustand, and a 35 Ford Coupe. At least their home is on higher ground and didn't flood so they are OK!

Has anyone ever had any luck resurrecting a flood car? Since his was nice and straight, I wondered if it could be stripped to a bare chassis then rebuilt? Same ? about he Porsche tractor.

[JoeDees]

There's another odd option here nobody has mentioned: Work with the adjuster and agree to a "repair value" $100 less than total. It keeps the title clean, the car on the scene, and allows the owner to sell it cheap to someone who wants to repair it.

[dakotaewing]

There's another odd option here nobody has mentioned: Work with the adjuster and agree to a "repair value" $100 less than total. It keeps the title clean, the car on the scene, and allows the owner to sell it cheap to someone who wants to repair it.

My experience is that is not legal when it comes to flood cars...
(It does happen occasionally on near total losses when the vehicle has been in an accident.)
Each state has it own criteria. If water is over the engine, and into the electrics,
the adjuster is legally required to deem the vehicle a flood total and brand the title as such in most states. Additionally, under your suggestion, the insured could come back to the insurance carrier and state that the car is not completely repaired after they have spent the initial sum on repairs. The carrier would be required to total the car, and the insured can still owner retain the vehicle for the salvage value. In this scenario, the insurance company has paid to repair the car, and the insured gets a check for the vehicle minus the salvage value.

This happens in extremely rare cases, but the carriers are very unhappy about it, and the adjuster might be looking for a new employer.