From Body Filler to Coachbuilding: How Caropsis Began
Sometimes Vasilis jokes that he barely finished school. The truth is he is a mechanical engineer. What led him to coachbuilding, though, was a picture from his childhood.
The body that came off the chassis
His father's work in the shop did not move him much, until the day he saw him strip a Citroen Deux Chevaux and lift the body off the chassis. That was it. From then on he started searching for that side of the craft.
He was drawn to the shapes of old cars, to what the British and Italian coachbuilders created, and not to where cars were heading. That is where his love for classics comes from.
What came before body filler?
His first question was simple: what did people do before filler existed? That is how he discovered lead loading. Soon he realised he was overusing lead too. Filling a hole or a dent with lead is still adding extra material.
So he went back further, to how bodies were made originally. You ordered a rolling chassis from the factory and it went to a coachbuilder. There a craftsman shaped steel or aluminium by hand, over a wooden buck or a steel frame, and built the body of your car. That is coachbuilding.
A craft, not a repair
"I am not a classic panel beater. I take a sheet of metal and give it the shape I see." Working with the English wheel, replacing a press and making a panel by hand, is what fascinated him and what Caropsis does today.
Frequently asked questions
What is coachbuilding?
Building a car body by hand on a rolling chassis, shaping steel or aluminium over wooden bucks or frames. It is how many classic bodies were originally made.
What is lead loading?
An older method of filling seams and dents with body solder before modern body filler existed.
See our coachbuilding and restoration work, or book a consultation for your project.
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