Fire Damage?

[Booyah45828]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

So you essentially fall under the same rules as a self built car? I thought those rules meant you had to have current 2021 standards. Airbags abs etc unless it was classed as a low speed vehicle (glorified golf cart)

Yes, from what the OHP told me. It will be considered a kit car and will go by the vin the OHP assigned me. We've already got the vin and the car is inspected and ready to go.

I believe the safety and emissions requirements depends on the year of the donor vehicle for which you've pulled the components from.

Pull it out of a 2020 hellcat, and you might need airbags, abs, etc.

A 70 corvette had none of that, but I think we were required to abide by the pollution laws of 1970. Which might include converters, evap, smog pumps etc. The corvette had headers with sidepipes, so I'm thinking the inspecting officer likely looked the other way(he is a friend).

Once again, this isn't a "I think it's how it's done" moment, we took a vehicle with a title marked "for destruction" and made it into a roadworthy car that was given another vin. I'm not sure how Florida does it, but I'd venture a guess that it's possible to do it down there too.

But, you might need a salvage business license or vehicle dismantler license to purchase the vehicle. A buddy of ours has that, and bought the car for us. He sold it to us with the junked title, bill of sale, and notarized documents. We took that, along with a whole folder of receipts and bills, scheduled an appointment with the OHP, trailered the car to the depot, and they went through it all, inspected the car, filled out some forms, and handed us a new title with a new vin for the car.

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

can you at least part out a CD car or is it just destroy every part in it?

Yes, you can part it out.. that is the whole purpose, to completely make it unusable as it used to be... it becomes destroyed from it's original form....

Caution, if you part a car in Florida and you have an open title, you could be charged with a Felony.
An open title is one that is signed by the seller but not signed by the purchaser.

If you already have a car/title in your name you do not need a CD to part it out as it is already yours.

An open title is illegal to possess in Florida, this is why you cannot part it out.

Junkyards in Fl. must either have a title for which they will sign as purchaser or a CD. A backyard hobbyist needs to have a title in their possession in order to part out a car.


a CD is not a title, it is a death certificate!

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

Once again, this isn't a "I think it's how it's done" moment, we took a vehicle with a title marked "for destruction" and made it into a roadworthy car that was given another vin. I'm not sure how Florida does it, but I'd venture a guess that it's possible to do it down there too.

But, you might need a salvage business license or vehicle dismantler license to purchase the vehicle. A buddy of ours has that, and bought the car for us. He sold it to us with the junked title, bill of sale, and notarized documents. We took that, along with a whole folder of receipts and bills, scheduled an appointment with the OHP, trailered the car to the depot, and they went through it all, inspected the car, filled out some forms, and handed us a new title with a new vin for the car.

Here is a Florida FLHSMV doc dated 2017 that explains the rebuilt title process.

Each state does it differently...

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

You can buy those vehicles that have a certificate of destruction title, rebuild the car, and then get a registration for a self assembled vehicle, so long as you have paperwork showing where you purchased the components that were used in building the car.

But to buy one, I believe you have to be a dismantler or scrapper though, and have a business license to reflect that. Sometimes insurers go through this route because they want 0 liability if the car were ever to be put on the road again. I've seen this happen too if the vehicle is a salvage title and were wrecked again.

We're in the process of doing that to a 70 corvette at the moment. In this case, the vehicle was stolen/chopped, issued a salvage title because of it, rebuilt, stolen/chopped again, and the insurer then changed it to a junked title.

The original vin will be gone, and the car will be issued a new one, and will be essentially worth little. But it's a convertible with a big block and 4 speed, so it will be a fun little car to cruise around in, and the public will be none the wiser.

I think in this case you will be building a new vehicle, and it will be required to meet all 2021 EPA and other vehicle requirements. Insurance companies have absolutely no input on title classifications.

[cadillackid]

same here on open titles.. in fact some salvage yards wont accept cars without titles issued to the person sending ther car in.. others will.. chop shops im sure are a bigger thing in florida than ohio since the parts can be put on a boat and gone. but its still a big issue here.. stolen cars get torn to pieces and the shells scrapped..


there was one in my suburban neighborhood.. operating out of a standard 2 car garage.. the homeowners also had a couple race cars so when car parts were leaving the house or carcasses. it was thought to be remains or pieces for their race cars.. stolen cars were driven or trailered in late at night.. put in the garage and torn apart quickly..



at the time this was happening Onstar was the only GPS tracking system available from a factory.. their thieve mules knew to cut the wires to the onstar before moving the car.. well one unsuspecting cadillac had a DIY Nextel / boost phone GPS tracker under the front passenger seat.. ironically running a Java app I had written and posted on a forum so people could track their kids cars etc cheaply using Boost mobile pay as you go phones (they ran on nextel at the time).. car was stolen and owner tracked it.. called the police and they busted the whole ring..



the whole basement of that house was full of everything from engines to doors, fenders, PCMs, VIN tags, etc.. (no idea what you would do with a stolen VIN number)..

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by o1marc

I think in this case you will be building a new vehicle, and it will be required to meet all 2021 EPA and other vehicle requirements. Insurance companies have absolutely no input on title classifications.

sounds like they already got their title for it.. makes sense i remember reading something about Kit cars in the Ohio DMV documents.. they are treated differently..

[Booyah45828]

Originally Posted by ewo1

Here is a Florida FLHSMV doc dated 2017 that explains the rebuilt title process.

Each state does it differently...

I see that.

But I'm not talking about getting a rebuilt title for the current vin. I'm getting a new vin using parts from the car that had the Certificate of destruction title. I believe florida calls it a custom built car title. I'd have to look it up another time as the website is slow to load.

[Ronnie]

Specialty construction title is what we have in Virginia for a homebuilt car, made from other cars. I had a Volkswagon trike titled that way once.

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

Specialty construction title is what we have in Virginia for a homebuilt car, made from other cars. I had a Volkswagon trike titled that way once.

so thats how peoiple get away with building a fiberglass streetrod body on an S-10 chassis or such?

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

I see that.

But I'm not talking about getting a rebuilt title for the current vin. I'm getting a new vin using parts from the car that had the Certificate of destruction title. I believe florida calls it a custom built car title. I'd have to look it up another time as the website is slow to load.

What you explain can be done. You just can no longer use the vin that is on the CD certificate.

That is entirely a different process but yes, you can use the parts from a CD vehicle to build a new vehicle and get a new vin number assigned.

Getting a new vin number in Florida can be done but it takes time....sometimes several months!

I have never done the process but have looked at it extensively in the past.

I believe this is one of the forms you would have to submit in order to get a new title / vin that would be branded ASPT or Assembled from parts.

[Booyah45828]

That's exactly what I was trying to say.

The CD or junked title is a death certificate for that vin. There's no going back to it, no using it, no nothing. That vin is no longer usable. So if the vin is what gives the car value, that value is lost forever.

You can still rebuild the car, use all the pieces from it, use new replacement pieces, and have something that is identical to what the destroyed vin was, it will just have a new vin. If the value is in the vin, the rebuilt car is worth little, if the value is in the parts, then the car still has value.

I too watch copart, and other insurance auctions for project cars. I just looked on copart and there's a 70 skylark project that looks appealing.

I have 2 salvage titled projects sitting out back right now, and have my eye on a 3rd with a junked title that's been awaiting sale for a year. It's a cobra kit car, and if I'm the last bidder, I plan to repair it, get a new vin for it, and then drive it. It'll be worth little after, but I don't care. I've wanted this type of car for a while, but I'm not the type to pay new price for anything, so this might just be my chance.

[Biscuitsjam]

I set my bus on fire.

When I was removing the metal ceiling, several of the screws wouldn't come free and I used an angle grinder to grind the heads off. A red-hot screw head fell on the driver's seat and ignited it.

We put the fire out within about a minute, but in that time period, the driver's seat, seatbelt, and all my electrical wiring were destroyed. The driver's window was cracked, the steering wheel was damaged, and the entire bus was full of soot. A few plastic trim pieces and displays were also melted.

I repaired the bulk of the damage, but it was a lot of work. And, this was for a very small fire. A larger fire would have had much larger effects.

[cadillackid]

it doesnrt take long for a vehicle fire to do damage.. when my brand spankin new silverado caught fire as i was driving it.. (fuel rail cracked and sprayed fuel on the exhaust).. it wasnt more than about 2 minutes after I stopped the truck that the engine shut off, the radio quit, lights went out and plastic parts started becoming a stream of melty flamey liquid river underneath.. a cop car stopped and we deployed 2 extuingishers on it and got it knocked down rather quick before the FD arrived and finished the job.. the fire never breached the firewall except with some smoke / heat presumably because the A/C fan was obn sucking it in the air intake by the windshield.. some of the vents melted partially.. with the hood down there wasnt a ton of visible damage but it was declared instantly a 100% loss by the chevy dealer and their investigators