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Disagreements after the founder's death led to one of his sons going out on his own with
William Floyd, a European car importer. Floyd-Derham exhibited for the first time in the fall of 1928. The onset of the depression led Floyd to pull out of the partnership and Philip Derham began to work for
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To combat cost increases Derham took to amending standard sedan bodies making them into limousines and also changing appearance by fixing soft padding over the standard sedan's top. Most of the standard structure remained intact. This allowed Derham to survive into the postwar period.
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During the 1930s Derham survived by building some bodies on Ford V8s and by taking on a
Plymouth - De Soto dealership. Once war began they moved to building mobile canteens for Philadelphia's shipyards. Aircraft components were added to their productions line.
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Derham developed their own distinctive automobile body style. Most of their bodies were built in series on
Packards and Hudsons but they continued to build one-off cars on any chassis their customer required.
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Cars made before the 1930s were mostly formal and intended to be chauffeur-driven but by the end of the 1920s Derham was making attractive convertibles and they became the bulk of production.
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From early on dealers would order more than one body of a particular design and this cost-saving practice grew to become short production runs of perhaps 20 or more identical automobiles.
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Joseph Derham (1865–1928) in 1887 to make carriages. As automobiles became more popular their clientele asked Derham to provide bodies for their cars. It was claimed only New York's
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The Derham business and its building were sold to Al
Garthwaite in 1964 when business had been reduced to armoring Cadillac and Lincoln limousines and restoration of classic cars.
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During 1956 Derham built a prototype
Lincoln Continental Mark II convertible but Ford's project did not result in any more cars.
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Derham always made one-off custom bodies but they were financially stabilised by taking on regular series production work.
45:. After the retirement of the last of the founder's sons in 1971 the entire premises were used as a Ferrari dealership.
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wrote about Derham Body in their April 22, 1950 issue. Derham reprinted it listing some current and former clients:
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To cope with the increased activity Derham required larger premises so a purpose-built plant was erected in
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were much in demand by
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Derham's business steadily declined. Most competitors had already been destroyed by
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1946 body on a 1941 Lincoln
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The same car in 2007 without the rear spare and with an altered grille
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Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States
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was a custom coachbuilding company founded by Irish
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16:Defunct American motor vehicle body manufacturer
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316:The Coachbuilt Packard
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28:wheelwright
336:Categories
324:0901564109
260:References
247:Duesenberg
232:Garthwaite
37:Following
207:Lily Pons
71:Broughams
59:Victorias
53:Derham's
49:Carriages
67:Phaetons
32:Brewster
55:Landaus
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320:ISBN
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