Buying a flooded vehicle?

[3MAX]

Would like to get some opinions on buying a flooded vehicle as a project car. It would be receiving an LS swap, so engine, trans, ecu would all be replaced. I realize there are a lot of other electronics to be concerned about - gauges, radio, lights, windows, etc.

I would expect a fair amount of work in getting everything functioning, but is it worth it? Would you expect switches, gauges, wiring, electronics to be beyond repair? I've got my eye on a couple of different cars that I can get cheap and are otherwise in good shape (body & paint).

Good deal, or not worth the headache?

 

[diesel4me]

It depends on what kind of water it was flooded with..

SALT water will eat away at the structure after a year or two,and it would be nearly impossible to get rid of all of it..

Fresh water might not be so bad,especially if the vehicle didn't stay submerged for long--BUT--if there was sewage in that water--PASS..you'll never get rid of the smell,and swamp water isn't much better either..

Basically any flooded vehicle is probably better off scrapped--you'd have to strip it down to a bare shell,pressure wash the crap out of it--and plan on replacing the engine,transmission,interior,etc--in the long run you could probably buy a better vehicle with a salvage title from a salvage yard that wasn't in a flood,to use as a "shell"...

 

[nvrenuf]

I agree, a lot depends on the kind of water but they're all a train wreck. I worked at a dealership when Hurricane Katrina flooded THOUSANDS of cars along the coast with salt water. The vast majority were not worth fixing. Corroded harness connectors, corroded electrical components (circuit boards, etc inside radios/gauge clusters, etc), mud/seaweed/grass in every possible cavity of the body, upholstery & carpet molding, on and on and on. The only way I see a flood vehicle being worth the effort is if it'll be a wheeler or race car that would likely be stripped to the bare shell and totally rebuilt, NEVER as a daily driver.

 

[3MAX]

Thanks for the input so far - I honestly didn't even think about the salt water aspect. I wouldn't touch that. The car would be built as an auto-cross car, but not necessarily an all-out race car. I'd still like it to be dependable enough for daily driving and cruising.

I've got my eye on a couple that appear to be pretty clean (no stained interior, no visible mud line, etc.) But I know pics can be deceiving and things are almost always worse once you start tearing into it.

 

[diesel4me]

We had a 1980's Dodge Daytona at the junkyard that was a recovered theft--it was found submerged near a pier at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of southeast MA...it evidently had been there quite some time..

When the car was hauled to the junkyard,you couldn't even tell what kind of car it was..it had a thick crusty layer of barnacles ALL over it,along with various other sea creatures and monsters like dead eels,jelly fish,shrimp,and a few lobsters in the interior..NO part on it was salvageable..

Thing STUNK so bad,we all almost barfed when we got a whiff of the decaying sea creatures--smelled like a combo of feces,dead clams,and rotting shellfish...why the boss even TOOK it for free,when scrap prices were like 20 bucks a ton,I'll never know..

Every year when spring came and things started warming up,that gross stench would permeate the air..we hated going near that car--when a car nearby it had to get parts removed for a customer,we'd always say "I ain't going near that thing"--No,YOU take the parts off!"..we even told a few customers "if YOU take off the parts,you can have them--FREE!"..

One customer took pictures of the car and sent it in to a local newspaper,and it made the front page.!..when scrap prices rose to 50 a ton a few years later the boss finally scrapped it--and said he had to talk the scrapyard into taking it!--they ended up putting it "on display" on top of a old trailer truck body...I wonder if its still there....

I agree a "flood car" might be ok for a demo derby car or race car that wont have any interior,but it would be a ton of work stripping it bare and washing it good,then have to re-wire the whole car..you still might need to wear a gas mask to drive it though..

 

[dhcomp]

On a square body? Sure, rewire the thing.

On a newer one? No way, unless you just need a body or frame?

 

[Csm Davis]

3Max where are you getting the flooded vehicles from if it river or sea flooding don't bother it is more trouble than it's worth. Even if it was a swimming pool it might not be worth it I have had one that went in a pond and came right back out, you will need to completely rewire and wash every Crack and cubby hole then spray bar and chain oil everywhere or some type of rust preventative. I won't ever buy another one.

 

[3MAX]

3Max where are you getting the flooded vehicles from if it river or sea flooding don't bother it is more trouble than it's worth. Even if it was a swimming pool it might not be worth it I have had one that went in a pond and came right back out, you will need to completely rewire and wash every Crack and cubby hole then spray bar and chain oil everywhere or some type of rust preventative. I won't ever buy another one.

I was looking at a couple in South Carolina. Not from coastal salt water flooding, but from the heavy rains they had a few months ago. I assume these would have been in the flood plain of a creek or river - possibly pretty muddy. Given the feedback so far, I'm going to pass on them. I don't mind doing some work / clean up, but I don't want to go to the point of stripping a car down to just the body and frame and having to totally re-wire and re-do the interior.