Henri Chapron (30 December 1886 - 14 May 1978) was a prominent French automobile coachbuilder. His carrosserie, created in 1919, was located in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret. History Chapron was born in Nouan-le-Fuzelier (Sologne), and began his career developing custom body designs for French luxury vehicles, like Talbot, Delage, and Delahaye, in the 1920s. France ceased building vehicles of this type in the 1950s, due to tax legislation that made luxury vehicles prohibitively expensive in France. Citroën DS specials Chapron switched his attention to the recently launched Citroën DS. Chapron’s first rebodied DS coupe was the 1958 Le Paris. At first, Chapron purchased these vehicles and customised them as one-off creations. Many of these became unique convertible variants. His DS convertible caused a sensation at the 1958 Motor Show. Citroën managers came to see him in Levallois to offer him a production agreement. For two years, the Chapron and Citroën teams worked hand in hand in order to strengthen the safety standards on the car and to minimize the cost of production. On the basis of a design by DS designer Flaminio Bertoni, Chapron developed a two-door convertible body that was sold through the Citroën dealer network. The Series convertible was presented at the 1960 Paris Motor Show. The official collaboration with Citroën began in 1961. A news item in the 20 July 1961 Daily Variety noted that Cary Grant had "telephoned the French automotive company, Citroën, to order a new car for use in the film" That Touch of Mink. The factory reportedly shipped “the display model” to the studio without hesitation and the car is prominently featured in the film, garnering key publicity for the model. Chapron built this "Décapotable usine" (factory convertible) - 1,365 cars in all. This allowed buyers to benefit from a factory warranty on Usine convertibles purchased. The factory convertibles used a DS platform supplied by Citroën, which included all of the mechanics, front fenders, windshield and wheels. Chapron used the full chassis, but reinforced various elements in the floor area. The doors of the standard sedan have been lengthened by 18 cm; Chapron remade the rear fenders. Chapron continued making his own DS based vehicles, including the Croisette, Palm Beach, Le Dandy, Lorraine, and Le Leman. Unlike the factory convertibles, Chapron usually used a six centimeter lower windshield for his own models. The side windows - including the rear ones - could