Custom car building. It is hard enough to do a street machine right once. Doing it a second time and making it better? That is quite the task. It’s like movies. It’s rare to see the sequel to a popular film do as well as the original, either critically or at the box office.

Very little of this ’66 Chevy II remains from when it was new, though it is still powered by a traditional small-block Chevy. (Photo by Brian Wagner)

But when it comes to custom car building, few shops have done it better or longer than The Custom Shop in Flanagan, Illinois. The cars coming out of this place have been featured in countless websites and magazines since it opened in 1988.

The problem is custom car building trends are like fashion. They tend to change with regularity and what is interesting one year is out of style the next. The real trick is making these cars timeless.

But to build a car twice and make it better the second time? That is near impossible. John Wargo, owner of The Custom Shop, faced such task and we think he accomplished it.

“We really had no plans on what to build we just took the great bones of this car that we had built 25 or so years ago and listened to the car,” said John. “We felt it needed a modern, newer look and design, so I started with a rendering I did of the car and showed it to the team at my shop and John, the original owner. We all agreed it was gonna be a hit.”

Not that there was anything wrong with the original build. The car did a lot of drag racing and its style reflected that—flame paint, big and little drag wheels and tires, etc. It did double duty at the old Super Chevy Show series, winning on the track, but also taking home its share of show trophies.

This is how the car looked the first time The Custom Shop built it. It did well on both the drag strip and at car shows.

John Shrewsbury, the previous owner, was winning so much in the show field, in fact, he thought about turning it into an International Show Car Association competitor. He tore the car down so he could make it a top-to-bottom stunner and … 16 years later the Chevy II was still in about 4,000 pieces in his garage.

Wargo got a call from Shrewsbury wondering if he’d like to get the Nova back. Slowed by age, he didn’t think he’d be able to complete the resurrection. Wargo accepted the challenge and the result is the car you see here.

“We kind of re-did everything. We modernized it with new technology and fuel injection, and all that kind of stuff,” explained Wargo. “We smoothed the bottom [of] the car because it was already disassembled and ready for that anyway. We smoothed the firewall, redid all the interior, and redid the exterior with a new paint job.

“We basically refreshed everything, but it was a super solid car to start with.”

The Foundation

Don’t go looking for LS power under the hood of this Chevy. The previous owner built a high-winding 427-inch Mouse for it and that’s what resides under the forward-tilting cowl hood to this day.

Shrewsbury started with an aluminum Brodix block and stuffed it with Diamond pistons swinging on Crower rods. A COMP cam opens titanium valves inside ported Brodix heads. The combination spins to 8,500 rpm.

Hooker Headers flow into a Pypes exhaust system to keep the police and neighbors at bay.

One change The Custom Shop made was swapping the carb for a high-end Imagine stack electronic fuel injection system, which was dialed in by Matt Bell at Redline Motorsports in Bloomington, Illinois.

A Hughes Performance Turbo 400 transmission utilizes a 5,800 rpm stall torque converter, and a Hurst Quarter-Stick handles the gear changers.

Strange Engineering Promod coilover shocks are the main deviation up front, but Wargo added a Ridetech Ramlift kit to be able to raise the front suspension for going up driveways without scraping anything.

The tubbed rear is fitted with Ford 9-inch. Caltrac Racing traction bars ensure all the power gets to the pavement.

No doubt the Nova was a real looker and a strong runner, but when John bought the car back, he wanted to take it in a different direction.

The Refresh

With the new build, the Chevy II was re-christened, “Renovator.” First step: It was decided to ditch the flames. Wargo covered the Deuce in Torch Red (from ProSpray Paint), with Carbon Flash Black graphics. There is a 3D effect to the graphics, too. The bumpers are carbon fiber and carbon flash painted, and the grille is a custom piece from Garage Dog Creations.

The cockpit was done by Wargo, Dennis Sullivan and Mario Vietti of the Custom Shop. TMI Products was sourced for the steering wheel, Chicane racing seats, square-weave carpet and door panels. A Holley Digital Pro instrument cluster monitors the vitals.

But the stereo really sets this car apart. Sony components from the head unit to the amps to the speakers and video system prove this Chevy II has no intentions of drag racing again. In fact, it was so impressive upon its completion, the Renovator was chosen to be in Sony’s booth at the 2023 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

It was such a smash hit, someone bought the car from John at the show. As he generally builds cars to sell them, we should not hold it against him that he accepted the offer.

Very rarely does the sequel to a film or anything else does as well as the original, but in the case of this Nova, it was a smash hit.