What's a coachbuilder exactly?What makes a car coachbuilt?

I thought it was a builder that HANDmade the body UNITS for an otherwise OEM manufacturer like Ford did on their early cars. they farmed out the units to the outside companies like briggs and Murray,who specialized in the fabrication of complete bodies -then ford made the smaller peices,so as to streamline the assembly line process. Pinanfarina [sp]was one in Europe I believe-Even Rolls Royce used coachbuilders to re-body some of their chassis's that were to be special cars.

 

Two definitions, really. Coachbuilders built coaches and then began building bodies for cars as they took over the market. Many early luxury cars were originally sold as bare chassis only, many others were frequently purchased as bare chassis and custom bodied for the filthy rich. Some cranky old geezers even held on to their favorite bodies and had them transplanted to chassis after chassis, resulting in grossly anachronistic in-your-face old money status objects.
By the mid thirties, luxury makers brought the fancy body business in house (Cadillac-Fisher, etc) and began to offer the buyers one stop shopping with a large selection of production bodies and options. Surviving independents had been forced (Briggs-Murray-Budd) to become subcontractors/low production body suppliers to big companies at all price levels as custom bodied luxury cars were rapidly disappearing.
Coachbuilt also has a second meaning generally accepted amongst English and American restorers, bodies built as steel skins over wooden structure. Almost all custom bodies were coachbuilt in this sense, but so were many cheap cars. A '32 Chevy is essentially coachbuilt. A '32 Ford isn't. Dodge, Ford, and Budd were leaders in the move to steel bodies.
A '32 Ford abandoned in a ditch needs patch panels and TLC. A '32 Chevy left out in the weather becomes a nightmarish tangle of rotting splinters and twisted pieces of flat sheet.
On Fords before '32, high volume production bodies were largely steel, while low production types like fordors were farmed out to builders and contained lots of wood.

 

I would tend to agree with choprods in that most coachbuilders were delivered rolling, driving chassis. The bodies were then special built to suit. Hearses, flower cars, limos, etc. Even the early upscale cars, Duesenburg, Cord, and the likes could deliver a chassis (sometimes equipped with "production" headlights and grills) and the coach builder would then build the bodywork.

 

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A '32 Chevy left out in the weather becomes a nightmarish tangle of rotting splinters and twisted pieces of flat sheet.

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This I can vouch for, I've seen it first hand. And the guy still wanted $800 for it!

 

I think Bruce and several others have pretty much covered it and I would only add a couple comments:
A lot of times the bodies in question were such limited production that it was economically unfeasible to set up a separate line to build them for customers.It was cheaper to farm them out to custom body builders.A good example would be wood-bodied station vehicles(woodies).There were several makers of these(Ionia Body Co,Hercules,etc.)and in the case of GM they used them simultaneously so woodies will vary in style between makers.Ford I believe had their own in house maker(I know they had their own forests to harvest the woods for them).
Mercedes-Benz up until the early 90's(and they still may)offer SKD and CKD models which are chassis and driveline with sheet metal up to the cowl for special purpose vehicles to be built by European makers such as Binz.
There are still people in the US who will scratch build bodies(Steve Moel(?)is one)but the costs today are astronomical.Just my two cents.
Ray