Glen and Brenda Cain of Red Deer, AB, have Glen’s dad to thank for scoring the solid 1962 Chevy II wagon that was the basis for the Hugger Orange beauty you see on these pages. Back in October of 2003, Glen’s dad, who lives in Medicine Hat, AB, was at the grocery store when he noticed a for sale ad posted on the store’s bulletin board. Glen already owned a 1965 Acadian Canso 2-door HD so when his dad called about the car he wasted little time making the trip to check it out.
     What he found was an amazingly untouched, 100,000 mile 6 cylinder/3-on-the-tree car still wearing its original coat of Sandstone Beige paint. The car’s original owner had passed away and the car was sold to a second owner but the block cracked shortly after purchase and the car was never registered by the second owner. Glen and Brenda soon became the third owners of the car and put 3,800 miles on it in its stock form.
     “It never missed a beat,” he says. “It took me back to my younger days. My first car when I was 16 in 1973 was a ’63 Chevy II 4-door sedan my dad bought for $60. I drove it back and forth between Swift Current and Calgary for years.” Though Glen enjoyed the wagon, he knew that its “as stock” days were numbered. “I knew what I was going to do to it right when I bought it,” says Glen. So did Brenda. “Before we started she said she only wanted two things; it had to have Hugger Orange paint and it had to be noisy.” Brenda obviously has very good taste.
     In February of 2005, Glen met Ken Storms at the Calgary World of Wheels show and the wagon’s restomod future was soon hashed out. Ken owns Stormy’s Street Rods of New Norway, Alberta (780-855-3778) and the company slogan is “We build hot rods with race car DNA.”  Stormy’s been building hot rods and race cars for more than 25 years and it shows in this wagon. Glen dropped the car off at Stormy’s November, 2005 and it was completed by July of 2006.
     The eight-month restoration didn’t leave a bolt, screw or body panel untouched and Storms and the gang added many upgrades to the Chevy’s old underpinnings.
     The chassis up front now consists of a Macgyver Street Rod products subrame, with Mustang II rack and pinion, 2-inch drop spindles and stainless steel tubular A-arms while custom made frame connectors tie both halfs together. Out back a narrowed 9-inch Ford with 3.50 gears is tied to a four-link setup while Wellwood discs brakes on all four corners bring the wagon to a halt in a hurry.
     The power now comes from a rebuilt 327 donated by a Massey Ferguson combine. Yep, you read that right. The 1965 vintage block is a beefy, four-bolt main unit with a steel crank that General Motors build specifically for heavy duty in Massey Ferguson equipment. The only difficulty was the block didn’t have holes tapped for certain automotive accessories. Once that was rectified, Custom Engine Works in Red Deer, AB stuffed the block with Keith Black 11:1 pistons and a Comp Cam that Glen describes as “fairly lumpy.” A set of double bump Chevy heads act as the 327’s lungs and a Borg-Warner Super T-10 4-speed - with a Centre Force clutch and Lakewood scattershield - gets the power to the 9-inch.
     So the wagon rolls in style and with the right stance, 17-inch American Racing Torque Thrust II wheels are up front, with 18-inch Torque Thrusts out back. The wheels are wrapped in Cooper tires - 245/40s all around.  When it came to the interior Glen was initially thinking of leather, but after a good cleaning the original door and kick panels, upholstery and headliner looked so good they were given a reprieve from the scrap bin. Glen did make one update to the interior; A 1965 Nova SS gauge panel with a factory tach replaced the ’62 Chevy II’s stock faceplate.
     The wagon’s body was acid dipped at RMC in Edmonton and when the shell came back to Stormy’s there was lots of work to do. The wagon needed new fenders, and thanks to Year One a set of NOS fenders were found in Atlanta, GA. The entire floor was replaced and the lower quarter on the driver’s side was patched and many hours were spent straightening, smoothing and aligning panels in anticipation of the car’s 1967 Camaro Hugger Orange paint.
     “We wanted a straight forward orange, no metalflake,” says Glen. “But some how it came out more orange.” Storms felt the car was a bit too orange, so he suggested some “ode to an SS” type racing stripes and it was a good thing. Storms’ son, Larry, added his personal touch by custom building a slick aluminum gas cap. When it came time to reassemble the car, Glen and Brenda made the trip to New Norway and spent about 400 hours helping put the car together. After gazing at the photos with this story, its obvious the collaboration between the Cains and Stormy’s Street Rods was a huge success.