Removing body of 29 roadster

[Kentmac]

In preparation for new paint, I have removed fenders, hood, all trim and realized that with about 4 more bolts, the entire body could be removed. Would it be a good idea to remove the body or am I asking for problems with alignment etc. Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.

[Step-down]

Roadster aren't like a sedan or coupe . Roadster need temporary support so you don't lose door alignment once you remove from the frame... Thats my 2 cents ... Some guys can handle carefully but I never had that much luck .....

[Barry B./ Ma.]

You might be asking for a lot of work getting the right alignment. I put a new Brookville body on a 30 chassis and it requirred a lot of shimming and torking down correctly, in my mind it would be a lot of extra work unless your body alignment is out now. I remember those 2 bolts around the curtain pan that were not to easy to get a wrench on. I painted mine mounted to the chassis with fenders off, painted fenders separately and painted splash aprons before mounting to the body and masked them off when painting the body.

[Marshall V. Daut]

Removing the roadster body is no big deal, nor is re-installing it. You can make life easier on yourself later when the body goes back on if during disassembly, you note and mark shims and body blocks at each location. Number them such as DR-2 or PASS-3, meaning driver's side, 2nd block and passenger's side, 3rd block. I believe only the very front bolt on each side does not have wooden block underneath it. That bolt will help tip the cowl forward or backward when aligning the door, so pay special attention to its shims.
Xerox off a diagram of the bolt holes in a Model A frame for your year and make corresponding notes for identification and number of shims. Put the bolts through the shims and wooden blocks as you remove them so that they stay together. Piece of cake!
Marshall

[pooch]

It will be a better job with body off, as you can get firewall painted properly.

Less masking for the painter,

Although, once you have body off, you will see a cruddy chassis, and then you think, just a tizzy up, and then it is a full blown strip down to paint everything.

[Will N]

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I've seen it where temporary bracing is welded inside the body to keep it from flexing off the chassis, forming an X from the left front upper to the right back lower on one side and vice versa on the other.