salvage title registration ???

[jrr]

Mechanic friend bought a Contemporary from a Md dealer. Front drivers side was hit and apparently the insurance co totaled it. Sold with a salvage title. Now all fixed and beautiful BB car. Now the problem in Pa you can't title a "reconstructed" specialty constructed car [ how Pa titles all our cars now]. Yes the selling dealer is now out of business.
Got any suggestions that I can pass along??

Jack

[Excaliber]

Some years ago I bought and repaired a Dodge (fairly new car at the time) with a 'Salvage Title'. Electrical system fire, car was mostly fine, just a total re-wire. In order to register the car I had to have it inspected by a State certified special inspector.

The PROBLEM was FINDING one of those guys! Guess who they ALL work for? Body shops! The licensed inspectors would NOT 'inspect' a car they had not personally seen get rebuilt at THEIR body shop.

Eventually I tracked down a guy in a 'back alley' hole in the wall 'body shop' that was licensed. It cost me a TON of money to get his 'rubber stamp' of approval, but worth it in the end.

Question: Does PA allow for such a 'special inspection' recertification process?

[Woodz428]

A couple things, they surely have a website that you could peruse to get the info you need. I would contact a shop in the area that rebuilds cars and see what they can do, or if they know how to process it. They deal in repairing an returning "totaled" cars to the roads.There is always a state inspection in a case like this. In Il. they put a new tag on it and there is (or was ) a sticker that had to be displayed on the windshield for 2 years after it was rebuilt.This is to keep unscrupulous dealers/rebuilders from trying to sell a car as never being wrecked....I know,I know,hard to believe, but I understand it has happened.

[jrr]

I would think that this must be possible. I gave my friend the name of the person in charge at Pa's DMV for the special constructed segment. We are dealing with state gov though. You would think that a "recert" should be available. Heck other than glass work/paint and front suspension this wasn't a big deal.
Thanks for the suggestion though. It may be the stigma of "salvage title".
Jack

[Excaliber]

My Dodge STILL carried the dreaded 'Salvage' on the title even after it was certified. I DID have to reduce the price accordingly. Even at that I still made a substantial profit on the car, NOBODY wanted to tackle a major 're-wire' so I got it dirt cheap.

[hssss]

Not knowing how PA law does or in this case appraently dosen't work. I would think since it is a special construction you could treat the original title as a bill of sale for the components and simply apply for a new title as a newly constructed vehicle. In worse case "sell" the components to someone else sibling, trusted friend, etc. Then after a short time that person has constructed a new special constructed car and titles it then "sells" it back. Wordy but does that make sense? Look at Titling a Kit car in Pennsylvania