BRISTOLVILLE, Ohio – A cherry red 1964 Chevy II Nova greets visitors as they walk in the door of Church Boys Racing.
It’s the first car of AZN’s, one of the stars of the former long-running Discovery Channel television show “Street Outlaws.” But the work to restore, revamp and rebuild it was all Church Boys Racing.
“We built the whole entire car, did a whole complete makeover on it – paint, body, interior, suspension, chassis, everything,” said Chuck Church Jr., owner of Church Boys Racing.
The muscle car stays at Church Boys, but the TV star, who has since moved over to YouTube with his co-star, Farmtruck, takes it out for a spin whenever he’s in Ohio, most recently in October.
But Church Boys’ clientele includes regular customers too.
“They’re a hobbyist,” Church said of his typical customer who ranges in age from 30 and 60. “They may have had one of these cars when they were just out of high school, or their parents might have had one. And now that they are established in their careers, they’re looking to build something for themselves. They turn to us to build them a car, or just provide them a component.”
Most customers are from out of state. They send him Novas to be rebuilt from North Dakota, California, Georgia, Connecticut, Indianapolis and Texas. He travels to large car shows but also attributes his reach to social media and word of mouth.
“It’s just a hot rod crowd,” he said.
Church Boys also makes parts.
“We build early Nova components – 62 to 67 Nova,” Church said. “We build suspension components to help them drive like a brand new car.”
That process starts when a customer looking to bring an older Nova up to date contacts Church, who talks to them about their goals.
“And you know, we can go from mild to wild, if you will,” the business owner said.
A North Dakota customer is an example of someone who went wild.
“We built a car for him that had 1,150 horsepower,” Church said. “It drove like a brand new, like say, a ZL1 Camaro, but it’s a 1966 Nova.”
That includes simple things like modifying the steering.
Church Boys will “take off the old components, which is 1960s technology, and bring it right up to 2024 technology with rack and pinion steering, power steering and, again, it just drives like a brand new car right off the showroom floor,” Church said.
They specialize in and build parts for Novas, but they can install parts manufactured elsewhere into other models.
His passion for Novas traces to family history.
“Well, when I was growing up, my dad, that’s what he drove and hot rodded around town, and it was just in our family,” he said.
Church Sr., who also works at the business, was stationed with the U.S. Air Force in Arizona right out of high school. When he finished his enlistment, the family drove to Ohio from Arizona in a 1963 Nova.
“And we still have that car,” he said. It’s been updated with a 2015 Camaro engine with overdrive transmission.
Church’s first car was a Nova too. His dad was a machine repairman at Packard Electric, but he was into cars and painted them at home on the side. When Church was 11, his dad bought a 1966 Nova for him from a Bristolville man.
“So it sat on the side of our garage for a number of years,” Church said. “And as I got a little bit older, I would start working in the shop, helping him with painting cars, and that would earn money towards putting that car back together.”
It was the 1980s and pre-internet, so father and son scoured garage sales and swap meets to find the needed parts. “So we put that car together, and I drove it to high school my senior year,” he said.
Church even took his driver’s test in the 1966 Nova.
The model has become a family staple. His mother had one, and his three sons, ages 23, 21 and 17, all drive Novas. His daughter, 15, likely will drive a Nova at some point, but Church is working to update his wife’s first car, a 1988 SS Monte Carlo, to be his daughter’s car.
His youngest son, Ryan, a junior in the industrial technology program at Trumbull Career & Technical Center, plans to take over Church Boys Racing when his dad decides to retire.
“It’s cool,” Ryan said. “It’s fun.”
His Nova is in pieces as he works on it.
“It’s a work in progress,” Ryan said. “It’s a 66 – it’s a four door. It’s a tank.”
Church started drag racing as a young man and got more interested in cars and wanted to make his faster. He worked as a tool and die maker at Packard Electric, which later became Delphi and then Aptiv.
“So while searching for components that would help me stay safe and drive the car a lot easier and, you know, carefree, there was nothing available, so I just started making my own stuff,” he said.
He designed control arms, rack and pinion steering and the whole front end of his car. Word spread as other Nova enthusiasts saw how Church improved his car while maintaining safety.
“I turned it into a business, a side business, in 2008,” he said.
He used to drag race three nights a week, and that’s where the business name came from.
Later, Aptiv management asked tool and die makers to take an early buyout, and Church did in 2020. That’s when he took Church Boys Racing full time.
It started in his home, and he bought the state Route 45 building, formerly Lazy B’s Trailer Sales, that houses the business in 2022.
Church doesn’t have time to drag race anymore.
“Really, we’re just building cars for other people and for ourselves,” he said.
Another example is a 1965 Nova station wagon that Church drives daily. He drove it from California.
“The wagon was satisfying simply because we took something that a small group of people like,” Church said. “It’s not your first hot rod, if you will. … By us building that car – and we didn’t paint it. It doesn’t have bright, shiny paint. It’s the original sun-baked paint. You know, it’s rust.”
But it’s not rust holes.
“We’ve turned that into, every gas station I go to, somebody wants to buy it,” he said.
That’s led to him buying and selling a lot of wagons as people see what they can do and how much fun they can be, Church explained.
His connection with Farmtruck and AZN started after he saw the episode where Farmtruck bought back AZN’s first car and gave it to his friend. He messaged AZN on social media for about three weeks, offering his services for the star’s Nova.
“Finally, I get a message back,” Church said. “He said, ‘Hey man, I think I like what you’ve got going on there. Maybe we can work something out.’”
From there, Church went to Oklahoma with his dad and son to pick up AZN’s car and brought it back to his business with plans to just make a few adjustments. He had the car for two years. When the stars were coming to a racetrack in Norwalk, Ohio, to film, Church worked with the channel to arrange to surprise AZN with his rebuilt car.
“He sobbed for 20 minutes. He was so touched,” Church said.
Both of AZN’s parents died when he was in high school, and it was his father who bought him the Nova. The two worked on it together.
“It meant so much to him,” Church said. “I didn’t know that story until after that day.”
It proved good exposure for Church Boys. NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., another Nova enthusiast, contacted Church on Instagram for assistance with his car.
“We had his car here for about four months last summer,” Church said. “Just about a month ago, I took it back down to their race shop so they could do the paint.”
Pictured at top: Chuck Church Jr., owner of Church Boys Racing in Bristolville, stands in front of the 1964 Chevy II Nova that he and his employees rebuilt for one of the stars of a former Discovery Channel show.