Due to the hurricane, what if a classic Oldsmobile is partially or fully submerged in fresh or saltwater for a couple of hours. Although the prospects may be grim, what can an owner do to maximize the chances of starting the car successfully other than praying? For example, drain the oil? Remove plugs and check for water? Remove carb or spray carb cleaner? Drain gas tank?

Also has anyone has good luck before with and old car that was flooded? Welcome your thoughts.

 

Call your insurance company. If it is saltwater, there is no hope. If it is fresh water, there is very little hope.

 

How deep was it submerged. To the rocker panels or the top of the fenders? If top of the fenders, immediately you would need to open all of the elec connections and dry and seal them. As far as the body… flush it with fresh water in all of the nooks and crannies let it dry out and hope for the best.

 

It really depends on how deep the water is. Above the fenders is probably a total loss.

 

There was a story a while back about a classic that was submerged in salt water. Guy took the car and rolled it down a boat landing in a fresh water lake and let sit to hopefully remove salt. I'm guessin the epa and others wouldn't approve...

 

In that case, we might as well crush all cars in the snow belt...

Seriously, is it a mess? Obviously. Depending on the level of submergence, it could mean a nut-and-bolt disassembly and restoration.

 

^^^THIS^^^

There's no way the electrical could survive being submerged above the fenders, let alone the engine and transmission. Hopefully it wasn't too bad.

 

I personally have experience with a vehicle that was submerged almost completely for a few hours in a fresh water lake. This occurred in very late 1980s. Our oldest son had a second generation Camaro with V6 and standard shift. The parking brake did not hold well as he found out one night while swimming near the boat ramp of this lake. In order to provide music for his swim party, he parked the car on the boat ramp with the windows open, motor running, and stereo blasting. Eventually the car rolled backward into the lake with only the roof remaining above the water. We had the car towed out and towed home. Fortunately was early summer and we just allowed the car to remain completely open to dry out. I removed the spark plugs, drained the crankcase and filled with fresh oil, cranked the motor over to blow out any residual water in the cylinders and added several ounces of Marvel oil to each cylinder followed again by cranking the motor. Ounce the car was dried out completely, you wouldn't be able to tell that it had been in the lake. After several days we did start noticing a foul odor inside the car and upon closer inspection found under the driver seat a small dead fish which was easily removed and discarded.

 

[QUOTE=joe_padavano;1595161]In that case, we might as well crush all cars in the snow belt...

I hardly thing being submerged in salt water and driving on salted roads is the same thing. Maybe it is. I don't know since I don't live there.

 

[QUOTE=redoldsman;1595200]That was a bit of humor for those of us from the rust belt, but yeah, the salt corrosion gets everywhere.

 

Fresh water rinse, fresh water rinse, fresh water rinse, for the body anyway. The motor is another story completely and probably the car would need a new wiring harness. As Joe said, a nut and bolt disassembly and restoration might be in the future.

 

Rinse with vinegar, neutralizes the salt, we do that with our salt spreading/snow plow equipment, fill up a pump sprayer with water/vinegar solution,

 

"Eventually?" How does a car "eventually" start rolling? The parking brake has a time-release mechanism?

I wonder if a nearby neighbor annoyed with the loud music didn't sneak on over and quietly release the brake and put the car in neutral.

 

Jaunty, since I wasn't there it's kinda difficult to answer your question. I assumed that vibrations from the engine running may have contributed. It's certainly possible that someone may have helped it along. Just stating the story as was told to me by the boy and the follow up as I knew it.

 

Let the insurance company total it then buy it back.

 

There are plenty of older vehicles submerged in fresh water that have been restored as good as new. There are very few things that fresh water will ruin in an older car.

I've seen FB/YouTube/IG videos of rehabilitation attempts with newer vehicles. They all want you to believe that they got it running fine.....but....

My neighbor bought a low mile Ford Escape from an auction that was submerged into the dash area in a fresh water flood. He completely disassembled the entire interior, flushed the engine and tranny, and flushed everything else that that needed it. He spent about a month chasing constant codes to get it to run properly. Once he got it running well he drove it for a year. During that time he constantly had to replace sensors and wiring that continually failed. At the end of the year he ran it back through the auction to get rid of it. He did it as an experiment because it didn't cost him a lot of money and, as the owner of the shop, it was something he did in his spare time.... He said everything electronic INSIDE the vehicle was affected....He said he would never waste his time on a flood car again

 

The nice thing about these old cars is that they don't have much in the way of electronics.

 

My Jeep did that once. I typically engage the park park and also leave it in 1st gear as I know the park brake doesn't hold extremely well on inclines, but this time I forgot to leave it in gear. Came out of the house several hours later and the Jeep had rolled down the driveway into the street.

 

I'm sure that was weird. Something similar happened to my Mom many yrs ago w/ her 1953 Chevrolet. She was always supposed to place it in gear & set parking brake. She forgot one day, set the parking brake down by the river near sand. My brother & I were w/ her - I think I was ~4 or 5, my brother 2 or 3 playing, fishing & swimming by the river. Car slowly rolled backwards far enough (maybe 20' - 30') when she noticed the back of the car was in the river. My brother & I thought we were doomed. Thankfully it was late in the day, Dad would be home very soon. They had one of our neighbors hitch a rope to drag her out.

 

Sticks will drift and roll places. Automatics won't, until the parking pawl breaks, then that thing is in neutral and off it goes. Use parking brakes on hills.

My daily driver I left with the parking brake on in an airport lot for 3 weeks. Don't do that. Shoes rusted to drum and it did a big lurch breaking loose.

 

Always turn the wheel in the direction of the nearest thing that will stop the car.

 

My sons two cars and there house was flooded just last week Hurricane Helene on Siesta Key. What a mess. His newer car was fully insured and will be getting evaluated, probably replaced via insurance. He has a 2010 mini cooper that was up to the cup holders in this salt water mess, drained fairly quickly..However he didn’t have collision insurance on it as he was selling it. I was wondering the same thing as the op? Can I pull seats and carpets out, rinse and neutralize with any success? I am sure there are sensors under the carpet etc, it doesn’t appear the water got high enough to submerge the dash components. Any advice?

 

Collision insurance is not relevant here. It's comprehensive insurance that covers a tree falling on your car, floods, and other acts of god.

 

Then I got confused, no comprehensive insurance. Either way thus doesn’t answer my question

 

Yes, you can pull the seats & carpet, rinse & neutralize w/ some success. The biggest issue (no apologies for scientific terminology here) is DMS (Dimethyl Sulfide) produced via phytoplankton/bacteria exploding especially as they dry out (releasing Dimethylsulfonioproprionate = DMSP). It's what produces the rotten egg smell you're likely familiar w/ alongside salt water shorelines where they concentrate & dry out daily. The only way to remove this smell is w/ copious amounts of fresh water to remove phytoplankton/bacteria which utilize the brine salts contained in the salt water. High salinity (salts) produces high concentrations of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton utilize Sulfur. While Sulfur isn't necessarily extremely abundant in salt water, it certainly produces one of the worse stenches. Massive/Copious amount of fresh water is about the only way to remove the smell &/or phytoplankton/bacteria.

 

If your son removes the seats and carpet to do a thorough cleaning I suggest not reporting it to insurance, button everything back up and get rid of the car ASAP. If it currently doesn't run then just scrap it.

 

‘I talked to him, we don’t want to sell that car to someone that will have nothing but problems down the road. Thats counter to everything I have taught him..I am going to sell it as is for whatever he can get for it. Best take that loss

 

I'd sell it to salvage.

Policies are strange. Liability, uninsured motorist, etc, is per the policy holder and is thus on all cars he has. However, comprehensive is not. He might be able to argue it's under homeowner's.

 

I wouldn’t gamble a minute or a dime on the Mini despite the pain of loss. Likely setting yourself up for recurring nightmares even if you actually get it functioning initially.

​​​​​​….

 

These cars will start coming to market in a few months. Be ready look for tale tell signs.

 

Then you have a branded title /ownership that's a pain if you want to sell it.

 

But they paid you in full for the car and you will be buying it back for a fraction of that. Granted the title will be questionable but for what you have in the car, you will probably come out okay. Or you could just part it out.