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Working on my 1949 22 series club sedan and need to remove temp. gage. What is the best method to do this?

I'm no expert, but here's what I did. First disconnect the positive cable from the battery. Then, when removing instruments from the panel it seems like one has to push the front seat all the way back and/or remove the bottom cushion. Then lay on your back and shinny up under the instrument panel. I temporarily taped a small flashlight to the side for extra light. I also had a work light hanging from under the dash. Then you can see the back of the gauges. Mark some masking tape with a "+" and another piece with a "-". Attach the tape to the wires. Take a couple of digital photos - one can never have too many of those.
Now disconnect the two wires from the back of the gauge. A magnetic tool is handy here so as not to lose the nut and washer. The gauge (if memory serves me well) is screwed to the instrument panel in the four corners of the gauge.
Crawl out from the car and soak your sore back in a hot tub.
Hope that gets it done for you!

One thing I would add is the instruments are individual but all are mounted in the metal center cluster assy. Unless the entire instrument panel is removed from the dash, that entire center cluster is held by the screws in the corners and has to be removed to take out a single instrument. Someone else who has done it more recently will have to say if it is easier to remove the entire panel or just the center cluster. Once the center cluster is free, the individual instruments are held in the metal by their connection studs and possibly more screws. The sequence of nuts goes thru insulated grommets. Remove the nuts, screws, and any paper insulators to pull the instrument thru the grommets from the front.

No matter what you remove, be careful with the wiring. Much of the insulation on old wire is so stiff and brittle that it will crack and fall off if handled roughly -- sometimes it doesn't take much more than a touch or hard look to make it fall off.

Here is a borrowed photo of the rear of the entire 23rd series instrument panel BDeB posted a year or two ago. 22nd is same except for the circuit breaker location and a couple of minor details. You can see the center cluster and screws at the corners and the 4 gauges, each of which has the wiring separated from the metal cluster by a paper insulator. Don't have any photos without the insulating paper in the way. The second photo is of the individual temp gauge showing the studs and sequence of nuts that will hold it in the cluster.

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Thanks guys for the input. My main concern was that I would have to remove the whole dash. That would probably open up another can of worms. I will start doing some yoga and then attempt to remove the gage from underneath.