Boston Business Daily

How do I restore a salvage title for a vehicle? What license is required if I resell these vehicles?

I wanted to buy, restore, and resell a salvage title vehicle. How do I get a regular title for these vehicles that I restore? Am I required to have any license by law to resell these vehicle on ebay motors?

Public Comments

1. once a car has a salvage title, it has it forever, there are ways to clean it up but by doing so and resellil the car, you would be defrauding someone ,so I won't tell how to do it
2. Where I live, (Iowa), you have to get a salvage title in your name when you first get the car. When you're finished fixing it, you take it to get inspected, if everything looks good, they sign off on it. Then you can get a "prior salvage" title for it. It will always have a prior salvage title, but it can be registered and bought and sold as usual. Having a prior salvage title makes the car's value significantly lower, up to half as much, so keep that in mind when buying supplies and such. I've rebuilt several wrecks. It's a great way to have a nice car for not a lot of money, but I always get screwed when I sell.
3. Once a vehicle has a "Salvage" title, it has it for life. The only possible way is to "wash" it through a state that doesn't pick up on it (ie, some northern states don't recognize "FLOOD" as brand and will issue a clean title for a flood damaged car.) Some places, a vehicle with a Salvage title can never be relicenced and can only be used for parts.
4. South Carolina is the only state I've ever heard of that will (would) clean a 'salvage' title if the car was repaired. In every other state that I know of once the vehicle has been declared a 'total loss' it lives with some form of altered title forever. Many states have 'destroy' titles -- meaning that the vehicle can only be used as parts and they are dismantled or crushed. My state requires that you have to be a licenesed 'rebuilder' in order to get the vehicle tagged and sold.
5. Ha, title it in Florida. They don't note anything on their titles. But seriously, once it's branded, it stays branded. I don't think you need a license to sell unless you sell so many cars per month.