General Challenger DiscussionThis section contains general discussion about the Dodge Challenger. If it does not fit into a more specific area, it probably belongs in here. (Dodge Challenger General Discussion)
You are exactly right. The insurance companies have flood cars professionally cleaned inside and out for presentation purposes (it brings MUCH more money after cleaning). The honest ones will tell you that or post on the website that the car was professionally detailed.
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I totally agree ! These are NOT rebuildable cars. When we had the floods here in Atlanta a few years back I watched IAA hire a company to come in an clean the cars.
Some of the cars looked as if they were never in flood waters, They did that good of a job.
But after the car sat in the hot sun in the lot for a week or two waiting for its turn to be sold and you opened the door the moldy, mucky smell of river water was present.
Experienced buyers at the auction told me dont just walk away from buying those cars "RUN".
Now if you need fenders, hood, glass, doors, suspension componts then you might be OK. But other then that forget it!
Don't be fooled by those pictures, Those cars have been cleaned up to look good. More $$$$ in there pocket at the auction.
Hello, I'm new to this site, joined in hopes of purchasing a Challenger SRT soon and gleaning some information on the cars. I'm not new to Mopars, and rebuilding cars however. Anyway, I disagree with your assessment above the "these cars" are not rebuildable. How would you know that without having had inspected them personally? I've been attending these auctions for 12 years (have a salvage dealers license), and have been around quite a few damaged and flooded cars. As a matter of fact, my current daily driver is a 2008 Aspen, fully loaded with the Hemi and every option except AWD. I purchased this in Decemeber '08 after Hurricane Ike out of Louisiana. It had 6,000 miles on it then, and has 42k on it now. And yes, it was a salt water flood car. Ditto for my ex-wife's '05 Durango. It was a Katrina car, flooded when it was brand new on the lot. It now has 110k miles, and is still being driven every day. Granted, these cars DID need work. And the examples above also needed lots of work in the way of wiring. I replaced ALL the wiring in both cars; There were hours and hours of labor involved. however, the drivetrains are original. It's alot of work to be sure, but the savings was substantial (I got the Aspen for a freakin' song - but remember this was in late 2008 when the economy and car sales were in the crapper).
Back to the Challengers - I'm hoping I can get a SRT for a fair price, seeing as I can't afford one new (purchased a new Mega Cab last year and that's all the car payment I can afford). I can promise you that these cars bring MUCH MUCH more than any kind of scrap value. Let me give you an example: The DY 2010 SRT on the list in Mississippi? Sold today for $17,000. Now I don't know about you, but that sounds like alot more than a car worth just some body and suspension parts. A '09 black SRT sold in NY last week for $10,100 on Copart. My guess is, the DY yellow car (and it had only a little over 1,000 miles) was probably a lower flood than the black one. Price will vary depending on degree of damage.
There is a '11 blue IE slated for auction next week in Long Island. It's on the list here. My guess is it brings around $15k. I'm hoping less, because then it may be sitting in my garage waiting to be resurrected.
I'll definitely let y'all know if I end up with one of these cars, and how it turns out!
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Hi GTS,
Please keep us informed of your progress. I was thinking more on your line as well. If one was to take the motor apart for inspection and clean it out, I don't see why it couldn't be a good deal as well. Though I do not have the experience of you or others with flood vehicles.
going through the exhaust pipes up to the manifold to the head ports = approx 5min, once the water has more pressure than the air inside the pipes, bubbles come out indication water is replacing the air
through the air filter, the throttle body into intake manifold into the runners through the head ports = may be a bit longer, but there your air filter is making sure it is cleaner salt water...lol
then depending where the valves ended up (BDC, TDC or in between) the cylinders on the intake and exhaust strokes will see water first; most likely it will go through the crankcase
the opportunity is to pull the engine out, have the block professionally chemically cleaned, bore it to a 426, put a short runner manifold, forged crank and pistons, change the valve train geometry and put that monster on a 8500 rpm regime, pulling 800hp easy with a dry sump oil system and no SC
now got your flood monster, the Loch Ness that is; the big scary, the never been seen before one...
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Hi GTS,
Please keep us informed of your progress. I was thinking more on your line as well. If one was to take the motor apart for inspection and clean it out, I don't see why it couldn't be a good deal as well. Though I do not have the experience of you or others with flood vehicles.
Mark
The '11 DWB IE is prebid to $8500 right now, but I suspect it will go much higher. I probably won't be able to bid high enough to win it, I've just got too much of my spare cash tied up in other projects right now. But there are plenty more SRTs, and R/Ts to come. I'll watch the auction though and report back what it bids up to.
FWIW, I've never pulled a flood engine out of one of my cars for cleaning and inspection. I always do the usual pulling of the spark plugs, replacing the starter, etc. They've all run. I did have one '05 Durango Hemi which burned a fair amount of oil though. It was a Katrina car and sat with water in the engine for close to a year. My suspicion is it had bad valve seals. I drove it for a while, and then ran it back through the auction when I picked up a '07 Durango.
that was mine and definitely a sandy flooded car declared a bio-hazard due to its exposure to contaminants...
I wanted to buy it back to make it race car but getting sick from bio contaminants no thank you
So if you come across say hi for me, I miss "her" dearly but that's it
Thought you might be curious to know your old Challenger sold on Copart last week for $13,400 (plus auction fees) to a bidder in IL. Looking at the pictures it did look like a deep flood.
It would have brought less, but a bidder from the United Arab Emirates bid the guy in IL up the last two grand or so.
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Anyway, I disagree with your assessment above the "these cars" are not rebuildable. How would you know that without having had inspected them personally? I've been attending these auctions for 12 years (have a salvage dealers license), and have been around quite a few damaged and flooded cars. As a matter of fact, my current daily driver is a 2008 Aspen, fully loaded with the Hemi and every option except AWD. I purchased this in Decemeber '08 after Hurricane Ike out of Louisiana. It had 6,000 miles on it then, and has 42k on it now. And yes, it was a salt water flood car. Ditto for my ex-wife's '05 Durango. It was a Katrina car, flooded when it was brand new on the lot. It now has 110k miles, and is still being driven every day. Granted, these cars DID need work. And the examples above also needed lots of work in the way of wiring. I replaced ALL the wiring in both cars; There were hours and hours of labor involved. however, the drivetrains are original. It's alot of work to be sure, but the savings was substantial (I got the Aspen for a freakin' song - but remember this was in late 2008 when the economy and car sales were in the crapper). 
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