I was on the hunt online for a Chevelle for a friend when I stumbled upon something quite unusual—a Chevy II 2-door wagon on eBay Motors. Being the car enthusiast that I was, I immediately noticed something off about it. I knew Chevy hadn’t produced a 2-door Chevy II wagon. Intrigued, I reached out to the seller and was hit with quite the story.

Apparently, GM had made around 200 2-door Chevy II wagons for the Air Force, meant to be used as runway hatches. These stripped-down versions, known as Chevy II 100s, were devoid of luxuries like radios and heaters, perfect for loading flight crews’ gear and transporting them to their planes. After their Air Force service, most were turned into drag cars.

Our particular Chevy II wagon had quite the journey. From being a florist’s delivery vehicle in Florida to becoming a bracket racer in Ohio, it had seen some action. When my wife and I decided to bid on it, we didn’t anticipate the adventure that awaited.

Flying from San Francisco to St. Paul, Minnesota, we had plans to drive it back home to California. Along the way, we encountered some hiccups, like needing to replace radiator hoses in Mitchell, South Dakota, and discovering that the “new” tires installed in St. Paul were actually old casings from 1977.

Despite these setbacks, we pushed on, stopping in Rawlins, Wyoming, to swap out the tires for a fresh set of radials. It took us 22 tanks of gas to finally make it home.

Once back in California, life got busy, and the Chevy II sat in my shop for years until October 2022, when my friend Ron Pfisterer and I decided to revive the project. We worked tirelessly, coating the inside and outside with POR-15 and diligently building up the Chevy II. Now, it’s in the hands of an upholstery shop, getting closer to being the cruiser of my dreams.