I'm in the process of fixing up my newly acquired El Camino, and i hate the drip rails on this thing, how do you delete them? any help would be great.
Drip Rail delete
- Thread starter monte olrac
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deleted some a couple weeks ago on one of my 87 elcos 8) i used the cut and fold method and it worked out niCEly.remove the trim and then score numerous times with your cutting tool of choice(i used a grinder/cutting blade)the factory formed lip the trattaches/interlocks on and then use a body hammer(flat part of hammer comes in handy :wink: ) and flatten/fold under the rail to the underside of the roof/door weatherstrip channel.after this is done the entire strip of the rail, then you can go back cut/tack/and grind accordingly.these 5th gens look SOOOOOO much sleeker wit this easy mod done!
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It's definitely an involved process because once you delete the drip rails you really need to get rid of the A-pillar trim that attaches to the drip rails. But when you remove the A-pillar trim there is a lot of work to blend the A-pillar into the drip rail area since the factory didn't really worry about it since trim covered this area.
On my '87 I would grind about a 1"-2" section of the drip rail away and then tack weld the roof panel and what's left of the lower portion of the drip rail back together. I would alternate from the front to the back to make sure I didn't heat the roof up too much and warp it. You also have to do it short sections because if you were to cut the drip rails off the full length you'd end up with a big warped roof panel.
On my '87 I would grind about a 1"-2" section of the drip rail away and then tack weld the roof panel and what's left of the lower portion of the drip rail back together. I would alternate from the front to the back to make sure I didn't heat the roof up too much and warp it. You also have to do it short sections because if you were to cut the drip rails off the full length you'd end up with a big warped roof panel.
Thanks guys for the replies, since my skills with the welder are horrible at best i'm going to leave this to the professionals
Why delete the drip rail? It keeps rain from dripping through the top of the doorway like a gutter. These cars leak enough as is.
Very nicely done, I wonder how much it changed the aero #'s. The smoother the better, Bob Jr.
Ps: More pictures would be GOOD.
Ps: More pictures would be GOOD.
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