I have a 1940 ford tudor and the drip rails are junk. i was thinking about shaving them off. i know when we did this to my old for p/u all we did was cut the old one off using a air hammer and ran a weld bead down then smoothed it out and applied filler to it. will this work on the 40' sedan as well.??? any tips or hints ?
With an air hammer, you run the risk of warping the metal. If it were my car, id probably use a die grinder, or a skin saw. also id like to note, There is a post on here somewhere on how to make your own drip rails out of steel rod.
yea i thought about the warpage thing as well but they are so rusted though you can actually pull them off in most places with a pair of vise grips.
thanks. i thought about making some custom ones that only ran to the back windows then faded away instead of running all the way around the car like they do.
Reproduction '40 Sedan drip rails are available for Coupes and Sedans. The drip rail really adds to the lines of the car. At least on a Coupe, the ones with the smoothed off drip rails make the roof look like a scoop of ice cream. We put the repro drip rails on my Coupe and the front half just tacks in to the top of the door jamb. The rear half is harder. The factory sandwiched them between the roof and side of the car, but we cut slots in the indented part between roof and body side (where the old rail came out) and tacked it in. There was a tread on here at some point where someone put tubing back on the side of a '40 Sedan to undo the smoothed drip rails.
I concur with my fellow '40 Ford owners above. At least look around to find some sedans without drip rails before you take them out. In my estimation, the car really needs the contour given by them. Your opinion may vary.....
Hey, If you do wind up going the removal route be sure to cut all of the rust out of the area (the reason the rails are toast & need to be replaced) or it will grow back fast! The heat build up from the welding really pisses off the rust and it seems to come back with a vengance! Be sure to shoot rust proofing material into the area behind the weld around the cant rail. Swankey devils C.C. Happy Xmas Happy Whatever
Thanks guys i appericate all the help and tips. i think ill just make some new ones to replace them with and see if i can come up with a little more of a stylish way for them
at one of the local shows around my area one of the guys actually cut off his old gutters and use a small round bar with the same contour that eventually got smaller and smaller towards the rear til it eventually disappeared looked really choice thought about doin' it myself to my pickup
Can't reference this, but seem to remember seeing a story in one of the magazines on re&re-ing the drip rails on a '40.If I remember right, it too was a sedan.Guy did a mint job.Anybody remember the issue?
I second that about cutting out the cancer. If you can actually pull out the drip rails in some places, you might as well take a grinder to the pieces you cant pull out. Then cut out all the cancer, replace what you cut out and see if you like how it looks. If not, then get some repoped rails and set 'em in place.
The article is in Rod and Custom and it was on a 40 Chevy sedan. The guy did a nice job. I am going to do this to my 46 Merc. I hate seeing drip rails on a custom. I do like the idea of a piece of roundstock tapering off to nothing I may explore that Here is the link http://rodcustom.automotive.com/45992/98178/photos0-0.html#
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