American Coachbuilders ?

Coachbuilder, like a Pininfarina?

 

The days of amercian coachbuilders such as Fleetwood, Murphy, LeBaron, Dietrich have all passed into history. Today there are small independent practicioners of the craft and they are mostly found in the hot rod arena. These include Moals of Oakland California, Ron Fournier and Ron Covel. Those builders of the past were eclipsed by mass production and a faltering economy. Today we have seen a rebirth of the hand crafted and a greater appreciation for their work simply because of the deluge of mass production.

 

One example is Fisker:

http://www.fiskercb.com/

Some of the folks modifying cars come close to coachbuilding, IMO:

http://www.lsrroadster.com/

Though some of this could fairly be called "restyling."

 

Check out one of the latest issues of "Auto Officianado" (IIRC). I picked it up for exactly that reason. They run a story on specifically this subject, and give a bit of info on what some are up to currently.

 

Finally we Danes have something to be proud of - You stealin' Americans better not take this one away from us!

 

While Steve Moals place in Oakland is more oriented to Hotrods he has done some other special projects when they appeal to him. He built this with 550 running gear.

Styling was clearly inspired by prewar Alfas.
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Moals is also responsible for some of the work on this
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Marcel's Custom Metal, Corona, CA has scratch-built several customs for Boyd Coddington and many others in the custom/hot rod arena.

 

I think there are a few of the classic builders around. Working steel or aluminum is an art disappearing w/ computerized fine-tuned CAD advantages right there.

 

There is a slight point here... If you are looking for a coachbuilder you could argue that Panoz is one of the only ones left that builds chassis to car in one place

If you are looking for Fabricators or panel benders who do bodies and the like there are bunches of artisans out there. In dallas Bob Smith coachworks is one of the top restoration shops in the Ferrari world, there is another shop in dallas that is a crafts shop that can recreate bucks to metal and even do entire rebuilds from next to nothing

The artisan side runs deep in the Pennsylvania dutch area.. Many of the Brass era cars are restored there (one local collector of Firetrucks etc sends his stuff there) it is low tech in the old school crafts people.

There are pockets of real metal worker artists but they are sadly a breed that may not be long for this world.

It is very much like wooden boat building. A number of years ago they opened a wooden boat facility in Maine that has saved that craft from the fiberglass progression of anonymity, In Canada the Guild is a prime example of a co-op of artists who's collective skills can produce ANYTHING

RM uses them and also has their own shop that can produce remarkable work.

 

Mastercraft Body Works does the old style work. They've done a lot of the Norwood cars in the past. There are some pics of the aluminum P4 body and other cars they have created and restored.

http://www.mastercraftbodyworks.com/

 

Saleen, Callaway, Cunningham, Foose etc- the list goes on. These guys are no less coachbuilders than any of the historic figures.

 

My vote goes to Panoz. Shelby also I guess, his Series 1 would qualify. But then they might be considered manufacturers more than coachworks.

 

"Finally we Danes have something to be proud of - You stealin' Americans better not take this one away from us!"

I actually thought about that - but aren't they based in southern California?

 

Well if you look at it there are those who do the hot rod side but there are really no mfg just selling rolling stock these days, I mean how do you sell a unibody car without the skin? the Fisker twirp is doing some things to MB Jag and Aston but that is not really what you mean. that is more body kit'in kind of like what AMG used to do back in the "Eeeewwwwties" (Hammer anyone)
Why are you looking? I smell a journalist looking for info... If so good idea but I can't really think of anyone other than the ones mentioned

 

I guess it depends on how you're defining coachbuilder, but if you are looking at custom bodies on existing chassis, Mark Gerisch of Genaddi Design has to be right up there. They make the Ford GTX1.

http://www.gtx1.com/

He also built the 250 GTO Spyders and has done everything from concours level restorations to modern convertible Bentley and Rolls-Royce conversions. One of his apprentices, Grace Cameron, is working her magic in the Pacific Northwest right now in her own shop: Metal with Grace.

http://www.metalwithgrace.com/

In SoCal, shops like Symbolic have a few panel beaters on staff and guys like Steve Beckman always have Pebble-quality work in their garage.

http://www.tomyang.net/cars/ferrari509.htm

 

Stan,

This guy still builds panels the old way. http://www.panel-craft.com/