...total it as non-repairable...
it will NOT be branded as such. That brand and a flooded brand is death to vehicles and brings no money at auctions. Insurance companies avoid brands like that like the plague. It will be branded as total loss salvage.
find the parts and cost of the parts from a real businesses (multiple quotes) so you are not over inflating parts cost (i.e. insurance fraud). So now you know what parts are going to cost.
Call insurance company, they send an adjuster and quotes the estimated repair and they repair it if it is cost effective. Else they call you and say, 'it is too expensive to fix at $X amount just of parts' or 'we can't get parts'. Then you have 2 options: tell them you have multiple quotes for just parts at this amount and they say then they can repair it.
Or you write it off and start to total loss process
If you love the car, whatever you
do, do not take a buyout. Most people who dont
understand insurance will tell you to total it and "buy back"
the remains - the catch is that the insurance company is
not legally required to offer you a buyback. With the RamSRT
guys there has been plenty of instances where the buyback
was $40-50k on a $30k truck just because the underwriter
wants the car taken to auction.
The 'buy back' is law but it is state dependent and is not a buy back as you are NOT selling them car so watch out for that. You keep the car if state laws allows for it and never sale it them as the pay out is just reduced by the salvage value of the car. The same thing about 'it must be repaired at this place and no where else', is not true. You can have it repaired at any place just check your state laws/rules.
You are basically selling the car so the buyer can do whatever they want with the car. Just like another sale it is their car now not your if you don't know your state law about keeping the car.
Unless you have agreed value or whatever your insurance company calls it that has been updated to reflect current values, they will low ball you and you need to negotiate based on equivalent market replacement (appeal their payout). That is always more than what it will bring at auction (unless you are totally out to lunch on replacement values) then you can ask for a buy back price and they cut you a check for the difference to avoid auction costs (i.e. minimize cost) but that depends on the insurance companies rules about who they can resale to and your state laws. Else you can bid on it at the auction like everyone else.
...
As for damage, the first call i would make is to JonB...
You are better to call the salvage yards for parts like Don, etc.
