do salvage titles matter when one does a frame-up restoration on a car? since everything is getting replaced, fixed, or upgraded, does the historical salvage title affect its value after complete restoration?

what about a numbers-matching restoration?

thanks,
chuck

 

Yes, salvage titles kill almost any value with a classic car in my opinion, do not start with a salvage car under almost any conditions. The one exception is a car that cannot be purchased or simply does not exist in any other way, think one off racer cars that have been smashed or super low production level domestics.

Numbers matching is another story in and of itself, if you are building resto-mod then no one will care, if you are selling a fuel injected big block vette then everything down to the air conditioning system and the original battery can influence value.

If you had a specific car in mind I can give you a better idea of what I think.

 

thanks for the response - it was more of a general question. out of curiosity, why does a salvage title matter if everything is being restored?

thanks,
chuck

 

If its a frame off restoration than it doesn't matter in my opinion as everything is replaced. Assuming everything ever damaged was replaced, including frame, frame rails, unit body, etc. If the car is meant for collectibility purposes as an original car it would hurt the resale as well. But if your looking for a hot rod than it doesn't matter if everything was replaced. Frame up restorations however means it was cosmetically restored, leaving the existing frame of unit body in place. To answe your question yes it really hurts the value of a on frame or frame up restoration if the car has a salavage title. The unit body or frame may be damaged still and was never replaced.

 

Plus I will add its a lot easier to repair a older frame built car then a modern one, you really can wreak the car and still get it back into show shape.

Some of the cars that I have rebuilt in the past have nothing left but a bit of frame and some vin tags so its not completely out there in terms of a idea to start from scratch and base a build off a title slip, then there is the question of is this even the original car.

In Ferrari circles wrecked cars have donated there drive trains to other cars then rebuilt completely up and then torn back down again that it can get hard to tell what exactly is original and where the car starts and stops. Then the outright deception that can follow can kill any value that the car had in the first place.

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