If it has a rebuilt title, it simply means that an insurance company declared the car totaled meaning it was damaged beyond (their definition of) economical repair. You get a bill of sale but it has to be inspected by the State Patrol before you can re-register and title it. I think there are a few insurance guys on the board that can verify this.
It sounds like the CL vehicle has already been inspected and titled.
I’ve repaired two vehicles that were, as far as the insurance company was concerned, totaled. I purchased one from my daughter’s insurance company and one from a wrecking yard. In my daughter’s case, it was a Nissan 4X4 that she rolled on its side on an icy road. The insurance company said it would cost more to repair it than it was worth. I purchased the vehicle from them and repaired it myself. In that case, the vehicle was a known entity and I knew it had decent running gear. The other one I bought from a wrecking yard; it was a stolen recovery Firebird the driver's window was busted out, the motor had a rod through the block and it looked like they removed the radio with an axe.
In both cases I had to have the vehicle inspected by the State Patrol. I can tell you from my experience that the main thing they are looking at is matching VIN’s. In my daughter’s case, she needed her rig back to get to work so I only did minimal work to make it roadworthy and I didn’t finish the thing up until that summer. That means if it had a bent frame (it didn’t) or other non-obvious damage, the State Patrol wouldn’t know (or care).
My advice is to have the thing checked out by a reputable mechanic; just because it has a rebuilt title doesn’t mean it’s a bad deal. At the same time, there are a lot of shysters out there and I’ll guarantee you will see a bunch of flood damaged vehicles coming out of the Centralia area with rebuilt titles.
