Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 M3W Body Removal

I intend to remove the body of my 2017 M3W for a complete re-spray and to repair a few dents/ dings/ blemishes. And while the body is off, I'll take the opportunity to review, repair, and install various upgrades all along the power train with reduced concern for accidental damage to the body!

I have thus far failed to identify any search terms that lead me to existing guidance on removing and re-installing the body panels. I know I've seen that the great team at M3W Services has done body-off resprays, but I'd appreciate any direction to find existing documentation for tips, tricks, guidance, risks, things to do, things to avoid, etc.

See a dealer or talk with Morgan directly. The only time this needs to occur is when the chassis needs to be replaced. Mine was. They budgeted 40 hours for the whole thing. Trickiest bit is one has to drill out all of the rivets fastening the skin to the frame. Have fun and keep us posted. Have you thought about alcoholism as a viable alternative life-style?

I don't know of any owner who has removed the body from the chassis yet, there is no reason it cannot be done by a competent DIY engineer at home. Most body off jobs have been chassis changes and those were done FOC until recently by Morgan. Now that option has gone I think many owners will be looking closer at the body off solution to chassis repairs and improvements. I cannot point you at some instructions and I doubt that you will get any assistance or advice from Morgan but it is worth a try, they may be more sympathetic because of your location? M3W Services may be a better bet for some tips?

It would be very beneficial to those who will no doubt be faced with the same problem in time to come, if you photographed and documented what you do. I am sure you will find there is something you would do better "the next time" that will help others following in your footsteps. There will be some interest on this forum if you can keep us updated with your progress and I can get your instructions added to the Morgan Three Wheeler Club website if you let me have them.

Good luck with it all.

While not being an expert on the three wheeler I helped remove the engine clutch sprocket and sausages with a Bleazy upgrade, I have to say taking the body off for a respray seems a bit extreme. Factor in some extra hours for the job a good sprayer could do it in situ, if you love a bit of Macano on a bigger scale crack . Em

Should read crack on, new bi focals....... Em

Surely it cannot be that hard, it's almost the last thing to go on. The hardest thing will probably be to get the roll hoops out where the tubes have been deformed by the securing bolts and a few years of muck and water ingress.

This sounds about right! You can put some effort in to the roll bars to get them back fully round while they are on the bench but you'll just have to squeeze them a bit out of round to get them to fit the out of round chassis tubes. Once cleaned up and squeezed to match the chassis, the roll hoops can be a bit of a loose fit; some paint can help them fit snugly. There's a fair chance that the rubber boots that fit round the hoops will be in poor condition by the time you get them out, it's worth having a new set to hand ready for reassembly and you might want to buff the edges of the holes in the body to get more even clearance round the roll hoops so that the boots can sit neatly.
None of it is terribly difficult but as ever when doing such things there is always yet another small detail that needs sorting out as you go.
Two people can lift the body off and back on reasonably easily but you really want a third to be running round checking and guiding things, sorting out minor snags etc. A fourth pair of hands might be useful at these points but any more might be just a way to start arguments.
A reasonably chunky pop riveter is a good idea, the usual small lever operated guns are hard going with stainless rivets. It's a good idea to use the correct size fibre washers between the rivets and the paint to give some protection, you might want to put some Dinitrol or similar on the rivets to give at least some psychological galvanic corrosion protection. Having some rivets available that are one size larger diameter available with matching drill bits is a good idea as some of the holes in the body and/or the chassis may have stretched slightly if there's been any slack in the original rivets. The design of the body to chassis tube connection is "obviously" with the rivets along the centreline of the tubes to give a proper, strong, equal pull up of the rivets...except it's not...the rivets are below the centreline, pull up unevenly within the tubes, so the "feel" of the rivet as it pulls up is a bit vague and odd. Luckily there aren't actually that many of them.
With the body off, it's a good opportunity to clean up all the unpainted bits of chassis and the bits where the paint has been worn so as to get it primed and painted something like how it should have left the factory. You don't want it in factory fresh condition, you want it much better than that and it's not difficult! Also a good time while you've got your can of Dinitrol or other cavity wax of choice to get lots of it in every chassis tube unless you can guarantee it will never see any rain, never mind salty roads.
If this is too deep into the "teaching granny to suck eggs" category, then apologies from me! It's a fair amount of work but no particular bit is too difficult or mysterious, but you'll be glad it's over once all back together.

Thanks all! The respray is to be done by a specialist in restoring classics who assumed body-off would be the way to go, but that in turn followed my assumption that I'd find easy guidance and that it was done at least occasionally. Sounds like M3W Services might be the only folks who have done it outside the factory. I'll have him take a closer look and decide whether he wants to repair and paint with the body on or off. If it comes off, I'll try to document the process. I doubt I'll do as good a job in the photography as so many other contributors but I'll give it my best shot.

This picture is what M3W Services send me when they took the body off for the chassis upgrade. 😱
At this spot, hidden behind the body, it would have been again a long search if it had given an electrical problem. 😬

this photo is scary 😱