My Z got flooded, what to do

[skerry]

Hey guys, I'm in South louisiana and my house and car just got flooded. It's a 71 with the sbc. The water came up so fast and when we had to leave it was already too high to drive it out. I put it up on stands and hoped for the best. Water completely covered the top of the car and it was likely submerged for about 24 hours. It was mostly a complete project but I was about to put ac in it. While in project mode though, I was only carrying liability. I assume it's a loss except for the body but I figured I would ask.

[LLave]

Yikes. I am really sorry to hear that. I have never personally dealt with a flooded car, but I would speculate that the only real way to "repair" it would be do pretty much completely disassemble, remove any corrosion from components and reassemble, or else you may be chasing electrical and mechanical gremlins forever.  If you can get WD40 into the cylinders and on components quickly, it should drive out the water and prevent serious corrosion. 

 

Best of luck, my friend,

 

-Mike

[Miles]

Why not take it apart so it drys out and you can clean out the silt/mud.  A friend once drove his 57 Pontiac into Lake Folsom where it sat for day. We dried it out.  Getting the silt out took some time. 

 

If it were me I would:

 

• Pull the engine and remove the heads, oil pan etc to determine if corrosion has set in. Blow out all of the ports etc.
• Pull Transmission and clutch.
• Pull the cover off of the differential to get all of the water out
• Remove all of the interior  to allow air to get to the openings, compartments and the wiring harnesses.
• Remove the  gas tank to wash out the silt. Blow out the fuel lines.
• etc

[Samurai7one]

Dude that sucks, sorry to hear about your Z. I saw a lot of cars go under during Katrina but it was mostly salt water. So if there is anything i can say that's half-good at least it was fresh water.

If I were in your shoes I would:

1) drain the engine, transmission, gas tank, diff and maybe some how try to flush things out. I would fill every inch of that stuff with the flush. Pull the plugs, fill the crank case, cylinders, intake everything. I remember growing up my, father's cypress shrimp boat used to sink all the time, he would make a mixture of diesel fuel and ATF to get every thing flushed out of the 455 olds motor and gear. He would Put in oil, filter, rebuilt carb and distributor then run it another year,

2) I would pull the seats and carpet, interior panels, door panels & let everything dry out, and then assess reuse,

3) the electrical & dash is where you will probably have nightmares. Every car I've seen go under that had the battery connected, the positive lead will be fried, and maybe the silinoid, ignition switch etc. anything that had power as it went under. Recommend you get about 3 cans of CRC electrical contact cleaner and start unplugging everything you can on the harness and clean the contacts,

4) don't forget fuel lines, assess fuel pump,

5) assess the brake lines & master cyl,

6) pull body plugs,

7) pull apart all of your light housings

8) you may as well trash the stereo system

...

I feel your pain, nobody had time to try to save their cars here after Katrina because their houses were also flooded if not destroyed. Hope that's not your situation also.

[skerry]

Thanks for the advice guys. Unfortunately I did have about 5 feet of water in the house so I spent most of today pulling everything out of it. I did get to pull the drain plug and the transmission pan. The oil looked really milky. Tomorrow I'm going to pull the carb and the fuel cell. Thanks for all of the advice. The interior is a complete loss obviously but there are a couple things I can save. Best part, I had a parts car at my dads house and it went under too. Here is a picture of mine, I tried to jack it up before I left but it didn't do any good.

 

http://imgur.com/a/apMHN

[1969honda]

Sorry to hear about all of your losses, I would pull the interior though and let it all dry before you count it as a total loss though. In the mechanical stuff follow everyone's advise so far, especially the WD-40, it will dispel the water immediately from any bare metal surfaces keep surface rust from setting in and pitting as bad.

[LLave]

Ohh hey, sorry guys, I was a little busy, see my house was underwater. No biggie. 

 

That is CRAZY. Sorry to hear this is happening to so may good people in LA. Best wishes. 

 

Thanks for the advice guys. Unfortunately I did have about 5 feet of water in the house so I spent most of today pulling everything out of it. I did get to pull the drain plug and the transmission pan. The oil looked really milky. Tomorrow I'm going to pull the carb and the fuel cell. Thanks for all of the advice. The interior is a complete loss obviously but there are a couple things I can save. Best part, I had a parts car at my dads house and it went under too. Here is a picture of mine, I tried to jack it up before I left but it didn't do any good.

 

http://imgur.com/a/apMHN

[jbk240z]

I was just wondering if you were able to save the Z or not.  Hopefully your house was rebuildable.

[socorob]

Hope you got it fixed. I saw a post of facebook from the JY in Walker I think. It had a whole section of hot rods and sports cars that went under, there was a Pantera, several Vettes and Mustangs, etc. Apparently you can't get them retitled. I guess they could be good for race cars.