Coupe body wood questions

[trevorsworth]

Hi all, I'm building an old school banger-powered hot rod A (which I have a build thread on the HAMB about). We believe the body, a 1930 coupe, was drag raced in the late 50s or early 60s, but was derelict for a long time before being paired with a 1928 chassis, which was then involved in the Houston flood while half-finished before finally ending up in my garage.

This is my first classic car and really the first time I've gotten my hands dirty working on a car. I have a lot of work to do, but I have it running and stopping. My approach is to get the car to drive so I can enjoy it while I work on the body. My header wood is too far gone to securely hold the windshield - in fact all the wood pretty much needs to be replaced.

The car has a steel roof that was screwed to the top of the car long ago. While far from perfect, it looks cool, was done around the time period I'm recreating, and speaks to the history of the body as a slap-dash race car, so I want to leave it alone if I can. I suspect if I remove it (which will be an arduous task given the number of screws...) it will take an act of Congress to get it back in place.

I have two questions:

1) Do I need the top ribs - ie, are they structural or only there to support the fabric top?
2) Is there a way to do this without removing the top from the car?

Thanks in advance.