Remove those plastic/rubber strips above doors?

[NovaBoi92]

you know that strip above the doors, just below the roofline. i dont no if its plastic or rubber, but is there any way you can remove that and smooth off the metal underneath? anybody know what im on about, if u dont just ask 4 sum pics ill post

[paul james]

If you mean the roof gutter plastic trims, you can just pull them right off easily enough. Mine fell apart so I don't have them on the car anymore. You can't just grind the metal lips off, as thats what keeps the roof on!

[NovaBoi92]

lol roof fall off, what does it look like without them on? does it look crap or ok. if you got any pics, that wud b gr8 cheers

[paul james]

I can't find any pics in my folder of nova photos, heavily modified/smoothed out novas still have the gutters on them. Because they suit the car well, and removing them and doing a good job of it would be a very tough and time consuming job. Theres just better things you could be doing, like stitch welding the engine bay, removing rust which is no doubt lurking somewhere.

[NovaBoi92]

thanks 4 lookin. so u rekon that i should leave them on? looks better yeah

[paul james]

Yeah I would definitly leave them on, they aren't noticeable on the car - because they fit in with the angular 80's design of the nova. If you removed them it would look a bit odd I think. To me it would be a smiliar thing to smoothing out the raised center of the bonnet, it would be taking away something from the appeal of the nova.

[Jack]

IMO it does indeed look odd with them smoothed off, as the window line doesn't follow the roof line. Plus, as said, its where the roof skin joins the car. You may end up with a cabriolet lol

[NovaBoi92]

cabriolet. . . not a bad idea thanks ;-)

[craig green]

Not to mention the gutters stop water coming in through the no doubt shrunken door seals.

I've thought of de-seaming a Nova in the past, but you would have to weld a seam or patch panel on the inside of the roof which doesnt have access all the way along its length I doubt.