The vehicle would have its body removed from the chassis, and then the running units such as brake system, axles, springs and other safety critical parts apart from the engine and gearbox would be removed from the chassis and would be inspected and, if needed, overhauled (at Chiswick works).
In 2008 the Bugatti Type 57S with chassis number 57502 built in 1937 with the Atalante coachwork for Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe was discovered in a private garage in Newcastle upon Tyne, having been stored untouched for 48 years and known about only by a select few people.
By 1903 a Clément-Talbot Type CT4K 18hp four cylinder was described as 'Coachwork by J.Rothschild et Fils, Paris' who had traded as Clément-Rothschild in 1902, coach-building on Panhard-Levassor chassis.
A Photon variant is available which adds a Hewland transmission, thinwall subframes, BBS magnesium wheels, titanium springs, and carbon fiber seats and bodywork, reducing the car's mass to 1,980 lb (900 kg).
A Pegaso Z-102 coupé by Saoutchick, owned by Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, was in this respect the epitome of coachwork sophistication, as it had seats upholstered with leopard skin and controls in gold, and in such a finish it won the 1953 Enghien-les-Bains (France) Grand Prix d'Elegance.
This was a cabriolet-bodied limousine with coachwork by Franay, delivered to the government in 1943 after it was decided that Marshal Pétain needed a new state car.
The birth of the Gran Turismo category, conceived in 1949 by Count Giovanni Lurani, journalist Giovanni Canestrini and Elio itself revolutionised the world of automotive competition: the category comprised cars with sports coachwork and a production chassis or bodyshell of which at least 30 examples had to be built.