Murphy (body builder)

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Duesenberg J Murphy Disappearing Top Torpedo Convertible Coupe (1930). This is a derivative of the catalog roadster with its fully retractable top.

Walter M. Murphy Co. was an American wheelwright company based in Pasadena, California .

The company was founded in August 1920 by Walter M. Murphy (1881–1961), who came from a wealthy Detroit family and had owned an auto dealership in Los Angeles since 1916. Since the beginning of the year , the company has been trading in Lincoln vehicles, for which the new company in Pasadena manufactured bodies according to customer requirements.

In 1921 one- offs were manufactured on Duesenberg chassis, and from 1923 convertibles with a fully retractable roof were offered. In the mid-1920s, bodies were built for well-known film stars and other Hollywood greats, such as Clark Gable , Rudolph Valentino and Howard Hughes , on Bugatti chassis and other luxury cars.

In 1927 the "glass house body", invented by the Swiss bodybuilder Georges Gangloff , was presented as an innovation, replacing the A-pillars with particularly thin, chrome-plated struts made of cast iron. This made larger glass surfaces possible. Murphy improved the system and received his own patents on it. After this, in 1928 Biddle & Smart produced a larger series of these bodies for Hudson vehicles. From 1929 Murphy bodyworked most of the new Duesenberg J models; At least one roadster with the patented, fully retractable hood was a "factory body" and is considered the most popular version of the J and SJ.

In 1930 Murphy abandoned composite bodies and turned to all-steel bodies. When it became clear at the end of 1931 that the orders for custom-made products would decline, Walter Murphy lost his interest in body construction and gave up the company in 1932. His former employees Bohman and Schwartz took over the remaining orders and thus founded their new company.

Sources and web links

Commons : Murphy coachwork  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files