Zagato, a variety of coachbuilt tags they've used, all found while at the Graystone Mansion Concours

 Sorry the above is so small... I forgot to take a closer up photo

pretty cool, each design, and odd that they had revised any of them. They all are good looking. 

The 1940 Coachcraft Roadster, a Hollywood original, with history and a great story (plus a website)

The grill was added by Kurtis in the late 40's when the 2nd owner had it primped.

  because the cars are so close together, and reflect each other, there is only so much that can be done to make a good looking photo happen. So, I recommend that you take a look at the photo on http://www.1940coachcraft.com that is how nice a photo can be when you can control the surroundings and setting.

 beautiful interior

 oh hell yes.

No trunk, no top. It is a roadster

In brief, after the great depression, Rudy Stroessel left Darrin, and with a couple other coach builders, started a company in Hollywood. One of, or maybe their first customer, ws a 17 yr old, with $1500, an Essex framerails, Ford flathead, and 40 Ford front frame section, Columbia 2 spd rear end, and Ford side shift trans.

The frame was boxed, then welded to the body, and thus it became a unit body construction... and hte footwells were below the frames, predating the Hudson trend, Read about the car, it's history as a magazine cover car, it's trophys and car show awards at   http://www.1940coachcraft.com 

Some pretty Cadillacs at the Graystone Mansion Concours

 sorry this one is fuzzy, not easy to see a postage stamp sized image in the sunlight

 Machine turned dash, and cool gauges. Sweet

 So way up above on the old Caddy is a Fleetwood tag, here's a model tag and since I've never seen one before, I took this photo. Biarritz is a town on the Bay of Biscay in south France.

the Cadillac Eldorado is the longest running model in American personal luxury cars, 1953 to 2002. The Biarritz was the convertible version of the Eldorado Seville hardtop

1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300, bodied by Zagato, winner of the 1932-'43 Le Mans, '32 and '33 Mille Miglia, and Spa 24 hour race in '32

if anyone knows what these bands are, please share the info! jbohjkl@yahoo.com

info from http://driven.urbandaddy.com/2012/05/02/1932-alfa-romeo-8c-2300/ who has a poster quality photo as well as the info. Love that site

Coachbuilder tags from vehicles at the La Jolla Motor Car Concours

the best variety of coachbuilders tags I've come across is at the Mullin museum. The variety of early 30's European cars there that were made for the rich and famous is a treasure of handbuilt bodies. 

beautiful Ghia Special Alfa Romeo, svelte might be the right word for it

One of 5 specially constructed 1929 boattail roadster Essex, by Hudson, coachbuilt by Biddle and Smart... all to make the Essex regional (5 regions got 1 each) sales increase when customers learned what a great car Essex made.

 now... why is the bottom line in a language obviously not on an original factory tag?

 I noticed that the top of this fuel apparatus says Vacuum Gasoline System

 what an exquisite instrument panel

 How the running board rubber mat has remained in such incredible condition is a mystery, could anyone be reproducing such a small sales item? Who could possibly buy enough of these to make a company produce them for profit?

 Odd that the kick plate is not one the running board, but keeps feet from damaging the alloy (which I think means Aluminum) custom handmade bodywork

this is only the 2nd Essex I've ever seen in San Diego