My drip rails are pretty bad off. It would take alot of work to repair them. The bead of sealant that was used on them has dried up and rotted away over time. Where the bead of sealant was, is now rust and very thin metal. I still have nice thick metal where they meet at the roof, and where they curve upwards. Just where the sealant was, is rusted out. I can push on them and move them. I can see small holes all along them where the sealer used to be. So, with good metal right at the roof line, I am now wondering what all is involved in shaving them completely off. From my understanding, the drip rail is spot welded to the underside of the roof sheetmetal. The drip rail metal makes up part of the channel for the weather stripping. The metal for the roof overlaps the drip rail and that is why the bead of sealer was used. Am I correct? Sort of like this. driprail by r0ckstarr, on Flickr The red line would be where I would be cutting. If I shave the drip rails off, then I would have two piece of metal sitting on top of each other, that are no longer joined together. I would have to weld the two together, and round them off with the grinder, sander, file, lots of work, etc.. just to get a nice clean look. I've seen cars with the drip rails shaved off before, so I am hoping someone here who has done it has some input and opinions on it.
This guy did it, if I recall. He is a wizard, I am warning you now, once you start reading this thread, you will not stop: my 69's resurection/modification
It's just what you think it is. Cut off the rails, weld it back together, smooth everything out, paint and enjoy. Lots of hourse will be spent on the smoothing out process. And make sure you cut it straight or you'll hate yourself when it comes time to straighten everything out.
If your drip rail stainless is in good shape, and you can get it off without bending or breaking them, I would buy them from you. I posted an in depth tutorial on how to remove them.
Brian is talking about his Riviera. The drips on a Riv are a total PITA to take off and put back on. The body shop I had my car at destroyed them on me.
Happens a lot. Convenient for the A-body folks, not so much for the rest of us. :grin: Some even go so far as to assume '70-'72 and don't bother with that in their sale listings or requests for info! Devon
C'mon, guys, it's ALL ABOUT A-BODIES, HERE. hee hee hee. Of course, mine's not a '70-'72, so yet again I'm a stepchild. :rant: :laugh:
They were warped before I ever got the car. I know one has a hard kink in it where someone attempted to remove it, but couldn't get it out of the front piece. The other is just twisted a little. Might be able to be put back into shape. I'll get a picture of them once I start putting everything back together in a few days. Yep, thanks for the verification. :TU:
