I like the look of round rod smoothed following the same line as the old drip rail did. Rain gutters belong on houses not cars, LOL My opinion cars should have smooth flowing lines ,not sharp troth's . If you are restoring a car to original, yea fine but to customize it you should improve the looks by cleaning up crap like this.
Like said on here before some cars look bald with there rails removed and they show the upper front door opening too much. Especially on the big round roof cars.Sometimes you need to have a bodyline take your eye away from that. With a smooth round rod it keeps a even flow of the body. If you notice vary few new cars have any kind of drip rails.
As an average observer, I've been around hot rods and customs since the 60's and I'm pretty sure if you didn't point out that you shaved the drip rails, I probably wouldn't notice. Trust me, after living in the Northwest for 40 some years, you want drip rails.
This looks great! '40 Fords and similar year Fords do look odd without the driprails, and adding the rod in this situation obviously worked out great as a fix-it solution. I think this is the one exception where adding rod in place of a driprail is ideal.
Hey, The '' Drip Rail " in some roof designs is actually a part of the upper portion of the Cantrail, yes, all spot welded together. When removing drip rails, unless the area is cut out completely, and any rust treated at that time, the area will soon start to rust, usually under your 8K paint job! " Meanwhyle, back aboard The Tainted Pork "
Just look at what CHOPRODS said. (Emphasis added by me) When I asked about chopping my '37 Chevy in another thread, Choprods gave me several suggestions on how to go about it. I didn't understand exactly what he was saying at first. Several others chimed in and said that I should listen to 'THE MAN'. What they didn't understand is that I was asking questions and he was answering them. I'm planning to have him chop my car because I believe he can do a better job than I could. As far as iconic cars are concerned: I have never looked at a car and thought that it was perfect. These were made by imperfect men and therefore could always be better. Some of my opinions are subjective. Get over it!
What makes this hobby fun is everybody has a different opinion and idea on what they think looks good. Thats how we get so many great looking cars. I just chopped my 46 Merc coupe. I took off the drips because I didnt like the look of the sharp edge, NOT to hide a bad chop. I could have chosen to leave them on, but I didnt like them. Instead I am using 1/4 round to make a nice smooth body line which I like better.
PERFECT example of why drip rails should be left alone...the black car looks fiberglass and the rear window looks like it's floating in outer space. Another vote for leaving them on.
The Jalopy Journal
