Drip rail - removal?

[68_2_H8]

Just wondering if anyone ever shaved their drip rails? Even on another vehicle, did it cause any leaks or anything else weird?

[jmedero]

Hey bro I have asked the same question when I was doing my 66 c10. I got a lot of people telling me that if I was going to drive my truck often that I would not want to do this. It looks so clean but they say the window tracks and doors were not set up to drain that much water away. Just what I was told. I think it looks killer and would love to do it, but if I was scared of the work involved on a 66 c10 can you imagine that amount of work on a burb... LOL.

[68_2_H8]

True, and I live in Fl, our rainy season is a bummer. I don't drive it daily and plan for it to be a show vehicle/cruise night/beach run vehicle. Still feeling to do it.

[jmedero]

Hey I am in north florida and I can relate. I have a friend that has a shop in Winter Haven called Michaels Auto Body. Mike is a awesome guy. We talked about making a lip more like an edge instead of the drip rail. He said it would be the same abount of work and look really killer.

[kev2809]

^^^ any pics of this?

sounds interesting but i cant really picture it lol

[jmedero]

no pics we were just brain storming. Its almost as if you would fold the rail over and make a filler plate to fill in the gap from the rail to the roof. I hope that makes sense... it does in my head... lol

[AzDon]

73 and later Burbs and duallies were made without driprails over the doors, but Chevy actually put four screw-on driprails over the doors because they didn't seal that well.

On 72 and older trucks, it's important to understand what the driprail represents in the overall construction of the body..... It is the heavy-gauge structural flange that the roof skin is laid into and the spotwelded to the top of the truck..... If you cut off the driprail, you will also be cutting away the outer flange of the roof skin and when you are done cutting the roof skin will no longer be attached.
The front corners of the raingutter often leak under the roofskin as the factory calking degrades because water can stand on this joint (in the gutter) rust the metals and start leaking.
On mine, I actually filled the raingutter six inches on each side and across the front after repairing the metal and also welded and filled the two seams that run down under the windshield rubber. To me, these trucks look to be designed to not be all that water repellant. The external top hinges on the liftgate look like they are designed to leak!
I'll take some pictures and post up later