By Maura Keller
This article originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of THE SHOP magazine.
For John Wargo, owner of The Custom Shop in Flanagan, Illinois, his first inkling that he was passionate about reconditioning automobiles was when he was about 16 years old, and he had the opportunity to fix up 1975 Pontiac Firebird.
“I was working construction in the summer, and I was saving my money to buy a car,” Wargo says. “I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get a good car because I couldn’t afford it. So, I bought the Firebird, fixed it up, painted it, and it was ready to go. That’s what started my passion for this industry. I continued buying, fixing up and selling cars through high school.”
In 1988, the year Wargo graduated from high school, he purchased a former Chrysler/Dodge dealership in his hometown.
“It had been sitting empty for a little while, so I went and begged to get a loan to buy the building,” Wargo recalls.
Fast-forward to 2024, and Wargo now owns and operates a successful custom build shop in that same building he purchased 36 years ago. Clients from across the country seek out Wargo and his team’s expertise in building custom cars.
“For me, it’s been a passion most of my life,” Wargo says.
The shop has a solid stream of repeat customers who have turned to Wargo for custom paint work and to design, rebuild and renew a myriad of vehicles. In addition, The Custom Shop has been heavily involved in such organizations and events as SEMA, Goodguys Rod & Custom Association and Corvette Nationals, to name a few.
“We do a lot of the big, major car shows and that’s where we get a lot of clients that want stuff done. Sometimes we will fix up a car that we have and take it there and sell it,” Wargo says. “We’ve touched pretty much every facet of the automotive world, and we actually had a couple of different TV shows come in and interview us, interested in possibly doing a TV show with us. I love watching the shows, but my whole theory is I got into building cars to build cars, not to be on TV.”
Today, The Custom Shop team includes several members of the Wargo family working to make the company a continuous success. John’s wife, Kim, comes from an automotive family background and handles the company’s financial affairs and paperwork; his mother, Betty, helps by keeping the shop clean and orderly; John’s father recently retired after working at the shop for 17 years; Brandon, John’s son, worked at the shop when he was younger; and John’s daughter Brianna, age 17, also helps with shop activities and has been working on restoring her own 1995 Nissan truck for the past couple of years.
In all, the company has seven employees.
“The guys that are all working here in my shop are all local guys. Most of them live within five blocks from the shop,” Wargo says. “So, we’re a very close-knit group that just enjoys building cars.”
CREATIVITY MEETS INNOVATION
The team at The Custom Shop primarily handles muscle car and restomod projects, mainly within the Chevrolet and General Motors platform.
“For instance, right now we just finished a 1966 Nova that we’re taking out to the SEMA Show, and we are also taking a 1966 Mustang convertible. We’re very versatile. And one of the things is that we do everything—from the chassis to a finished car,” Wargo says. “From metal work to painting to upholstery to wiring, there’s really nothing on a car that we can’t do, which really is what most of our customers are looking for.”
And thanks to today’s connectivity, The Custom Shop’s client base stretches from New York to Florida to California.
“Technology helps so that we can keep them informed via FaceTime and videos that allow them to be part of the project, even though they are 2,000 miles away,” Wargo explains. “We also have a lot of walk-in customers, but most of our customers come from miles away and they are often from big cities. They see our little, tiny shop in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by corn fields, but then you open up the doors and you see all of these really killer rides that we are working on—it’s really kind of funny.”
With such a longstanding history, Wargo and his team don’t have to do too much marketing as the company has earned a strong reputation within the industry. Although it utilizes social media platforms such as Facebook, the majority of clients learn about The Custom Shop via word-of-mouth referrals.
“We’ve done a lot of really large things for being a small shop,” Wargo says. “We’ve been featured in hundreds of magazine articles and on magazine covers. That also helps bring in customers.”
After a tumultuous few years during and after the pandemic where the supply chain was a challenge, Wargo is pleased that things are starting to get back to normal.
“Thank goodness we have the ability to fabricate, because a lot of times if you can’t get it, you’ve got to make it. You call around and nobody’s got it. We just break out the tools and make the item,” he notes. “Luckily, we also have customers who understand that sometimes that’s what it takes. You’ve got to make it happen. You’ve got to build it right.”
CUSTOMER INVOLVEMENT
After working on so many projects during his company’s 35-year history, Wargo says one vehicle stands out from the rest—namely, his personal 1968 Camaro, an AWD, 800-hp roadster convertible. Built about 10 years ago, the vehicle was one of the first AWD Camaros.
“It’s near and dear to my heart because it’s such a unique animal,” Wargo says. “But every project has got its little perks. We did a 1953 truck for a lady from Colorado, and it was her grandfather’s truck. You could tell it was workhorse all its life. We completely redid it with a new chassis and new motor. We redid all the body work, painted it, installed a new leather interior and basically made her a brand-new 1953 truck.”
It’s through projects like that that relationships are formed.
“It’s so fun to get invested into these people, really get into their lives and become friends,” he continues. “You’ve created something for them that will bring lifelong memories for them and their kids. We always say to our customers, ‘If you’re not having a good time when you’re building this stuff with us, then we’re doing something wrong.’ We always try to make sure that they feel like they’re part of it.”
Continuous communication with each client is of paramount importance. The team puts together a gameplan of what it feels the project needs, but Wargo always wants the client to be involved in making sure that it’s what they want.
“Because at the end of the day, when we finish a project, we want them to be as excited about it as we are,” Wargo explains.
PASSING DOWN THE PASSION
One person at The Custom Shop (thecustomshop.co) who is truly excited about the outcome of their hard work is Wargo’s daughter Brianna, who is closely following in her father’s footsteps.
“When I was young, I built a really custom Nissan pickup truck. It was a tandem axle stretch truck that was customized and I won the Showtime Trucking Nationals,” John Wargo says. “Fast-forward and my daughter recently said she was interested in restoring her own truck. I’m very familiar with the Nissan so I said, ‘Maybe we’ll get lucky and we can find an old Nissan.’”
Sure enough, they soon found an old Nissan truck at a local dealership.
“They were going to take it to a junkyard and crush it,” says Wargo. “When I asked what was wrong with it, the dealer said it just needed too much work and they didn’t want to mess with it. The junkyard was going to give him $250, so I said, ‘I’ll give you $250 and we’ll take it home right now.’”
That was two years ago, when Brianna was 15. Since then she has completely restored the truck, learning the tricks of the trade from Wargo along the way, but doing the majority of the work herself—including welding new rockers and new sheet metal to fix the rust, restoring the interior and adding a 25-color paint job.
The grille of the truck was originally from a Nissan Wargo had purchased years ago and it had been hanging on a wall at The Custom Shop until Brianna decided to install it on her own vehicle.
After two years of hard work, Brianna’s efforts paid off, as the truck won Best Debut of Show at the 2023 Slamology show in Indiana.
“She just she couldn’t be prouder. It was literally going to the junkyard and it became a show car. It took her almost two years, but she learned so much along the way,” Wargo says. “I told her, ‘I’m a car guy. There’s no reason that you can’t learn this stuff and know this stuff. And when you get older, you’re going to have so much knowledge.’ It’s just a great platform for her to learn a solid work ethic and realize that it takes hard work and determination to get the job done.”
Continuing to instill his love of vehicles in others is what excites Wargo when looking to the future.
“We are as busy as ever and we are about two years booked out. We’re very fortunate to have great customers and clients,” Wargo says. “I always try to explain to people that when you build something for somebody and you make their dream come true, that is a form of payment that is not dollars and cents. It’s just the satisfaction that you can only get from doing something like that.”
