Meguiar’s Top 5 West Coast d’Elegance: Byrn Williams 1955 Chevy Nomad built by South City Rod and Custom
Imagine ordering a car and then waiting 45 years for delivery. That’s essentially what Bryn Williams did before parading his custom 1955 Chevy Nomad as a finalist for the Meguiars West Coast Goodguys d’Elegance award in Del Mar. Bryn bought the Nomad in 1972 and drove it for three years. Then he took it off the road and disassembled it, intending to restore it to “GM assembly line condition.”
Then the program stalled for 45 years. “When I got back on it, I’d switched to a modified design,” Bryn says.
At the 2015 Goodguys Del Mar event, Bryn ordered a Roadster Shop Fast Track chassis. It was delivered complete with its modern performance suspension, C7 Corvette spindles, coil-over shocks, Strange Engineering 9-inch rearend, and Brembo disc brakes.
Bryn had developed some modernizing changes around the idea of, “What would GM design have done if they brought back the Nomad?” He shared them with artist Keith Kaucher, who incorporated them into a rendering. He then set about gathering all the components together and eventually trailered it all to South City Rod & Custom, where he showed owner Bill Ganahl the rendering and told him he wanted the shop to build it.
Bill and his team met Bryn’s vision of a slightly peaked frontal view similar to the ’56 Chevy by mating the front portion of a spare ’56 Chevy hood to the ’55 hood and hand building a peaked version of the original grille. To meet the goal of more delicate bumpers, a ’63 Riviera front bumper was sliced and diced to fit the reshaped frontal styling. The same process adapted a ’63 Riv rear bumper to the back of the Nomad.
From his local Chevrolet dealer, Bryn ordered an aluminum 6.2-liter LT4 engine with electronic fuel injection and ignition. Valve covers and air cleaner from Scott’s Hotrods complete the 650-horsepower mill, backed by a Magnum six-speed transmission. Pyramid Optimized Design created the modern 7-spoke wheel design with Michelin Pilot tires mounted.
DJ Designs had red waffle-pattern leather made for seat inserts and side panels. A custom console, Dakota Digital gauges, Sparco steering wheel on a Flaming River column, and Vintage Air are other features of the reimagined interior.
Bryn had dreamed of getting behind the wheel for some fun at one of the run-what-you-brung events at Sonoma Raceway, which hosts a number of track days and road course races. But that will have to wait awhile.
“It turned out too nice,” he says. The Nomad was named Best in Class and won Outstanding Paint at the Grand National Roadster Show before being honored at the Del Mar event. “We’re going to take it to some more Goodguys and concours events before we try the racetrack!”
Photos: Michael Christensen, Damon Lee
