This 1962 Chevy II Station Wagon Would Make a Great Daily Driver. Here's How I'd Build It.

I love my Corvair coupe, but my first oldie was a ’68 Camaro convertible, so I occasionally miss that 327 / four-speed combination. In fact, back when I had the Camaro, I often wished it was a ’62-’63 Nova convertible instead. Nowadays, I’m a little more sun shy, but I could use the hauling capacity (both cargo and passenger) of a wagon, so when I spotted this 1962 Chevrolet Chevy II wagon in the Hemmings classifieds, I immediately envisioned it as a cross between my all-roads, four-season Corvair (wagons have enough weight over the rear wheels to make up for this being a front-engine/rear-drive car) and the muscular Camaro.

The listing says this is a Nova, and I don’t claim to be a Chevy II expert, but I think it’s actually from the 300-series, which was the mid-grade offering in 1962. The back seat (or perhaps middle, as you could get these in a three-row configuration too) is still wearing the proper upholstery, which suggests this car has always had a red interior. It’s a nice combination with what I suspect is original Satin Silver paint.

The trim and interior suggest this is a 300-series wagon, rather than a Nova.

Under the hood of this one is a straight-six, likely the original 120-hp, 194-cu.in. unit which heralded a new generation of Chevy six that would grow to 230, 250, and 292 cu.in. It was a good engine, but Chevrolet made it all too easy to put a small-block V-8 into one of these right from the start - a foreshadowing of the factory-installed 283 that came along for 1965 1964. It really doesn’t take much beyond a special oil pan. I’m thinking the 275-hp L30 327 of 1966-’68, which was a nice, tractable engine, topped with a Quadrajet four-barrel.

The shift quadrant on this car indicates it already has a Powerglide and I don’t know that I’d change that. I mean, obviously the six-cylinder ’Glide won’t work with a 327, but there are plenty of aluminum-case Powerglide takeouts from V-8 cars that could use a new home since somebody swapped a TH350 or 700R4 in their place.

The Chevy II, even in wagon form, doesn’t weigh much (a hair under 2,900 pounds with the six and a stick), so it doesn’t need a bunch of gear to get going or overdrive to let it cruise at 70 mph. My 3,300-lb Camaro was more than adequate with its 210 horsepower and 2.73 gears, so a set of 3.08s would probably do nicely in the wagon. The Chevy II rear in the early years was the same unit used in full-size cars, so there’s no need to swap it out just to install five-lug axles and bigger brakes. Thanks to the popularity of Chevy II / Nova V-8 swaps over the past six decades, plenty of aftermarket options exist to put good, five-lug brakes up front (discs if you so demand) and to install a dual-circuit master cylinder.

Although the front seat has been reupholstered, the rear (possibly middle) seat shows the original style upholstery.

Cosmetically, my final twist is to say that I wouldn’t change much about the body or interior except to lift the chassis just enough to clear my chosen wheel-and-tire combo. I’d love to re-skin the front seat to match the middle, but I could live with the way things are. I love those accessory gauges in the panel above the driver’s left knee. I even like the dinged-up trim and worn silver paint. I love dog dishes and body-color steel wheels, but the original 13s won’t work with the brake upgrade. Instead, I’d want a set of reproduction 15-inch steel wheels, painted silver; dog dishes off a full-size ’62 Chevy; and a set of blackwall snow tires as I’m running on the Corvair—it seems like 205/75R15 would do the trick, giving an overall diameter close to the 6.70 x 15 that was stock on both the 1962 Corvette and the 1962 Willys CJs.

A 327-powered Chevy II 300 wagon as a proto-SUV would do the daily-driver trick for me. How would you build it?

1962 Chevrolet Nova

See more Chevy II and Nova listings at Hemmings.com.