I finished putting back the vinyl roof back on my 72 Cutlass S but I would like to know how to put back the drip rail molding.

Do you start at the back where the small bend is and then work to the front or the other way around?
With the vinyl on it is hard too get the bottom of the molding to go over the edge and I don't want to hit it too hard and dent it.

Any tips and tricks?

 

I saw this a while back, even though it's a Ford.

 

I also saw this one but it's not like he does with the vinyl top on it's pretty hard to get it over the edge.

 

Does anyone know where to start with the drip rail molding?
Do I start with the sharp bend at the back and then work my way to the front?

 

The ones I have done, I have started from the front.

 

I still have to do this with my car, but I don't think it really matters since the moldings are 3 pieces. Any gap you have between the A pillar molding and the roof drip molding gets covered by that small transition piece. If your vinyl has been trimmed right, it shouldn't interfere with the reinstall. If you painted the car though, you might have a build up of paint/clear on the roof drip that could be part of the reinstall problem. The moldings are a tight fit to start with. I've played with the ones I have and it's apparent I'll have to wet sand the CC on my car when I go to install them. Good luck, hope it turns out nicely!

 

Can you show a pic of where and how close the vinyl comes to the drip rail? Maybe im reading this wrong but it sounds to me like that your vinyl is ?glued to the drip rail? Im not an expert on this but I dont think it should be under the molding at all. The vinyl on my car only came down to the bottom of the channel and there was a plastic (all broken) trim piece glued down in the bottom of the channel. Without this plastic trim piece im not sure how the vinyl should be cut. But again I dont think it goes under the stainless trim.

Steve

 

The factory had them under the drip rail but I had one replaced and he had to install the drip rail molding, tape it off and glue the top down. He cut it along the drip rail molding and you could not tell it was like that. I am sure someone could do it like factory but looks like it would be hard to do.

 

I'm with Steve on this. Possibly the best solution is to cut the vinyl short of the drip rail upright and apply a really good bead of seam seal or color matched silicone along the cut edge?

 

There on the car with some persuasion because of the vinyl I had to pull them hard down on the drip rail and them jank them over the edge.
I started at the front once I checked where the bend had to be and worked bit by bit to the back.
The last hard bit at one side was not getting over the edge because it was much higher then the other side so we tapped the molding over the edge.
Thanks guys.

 

Lets see how it turned out - Pics please!

 

Here is the result, it turned out pretty good besides a few dings from hitting the molding too hard.

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This edge was a bit higher so we tapped the molding around the edge to keep it from popping of.
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Other side
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Your pics are not showing. Did you move them somewhere in your host server after you posted them? If you do that, the link to this site will be broken and those placeholder images from photobucket will show instead.
Maybe install the pics directly to the CO website so it will continue to host the images for others to see?

 

I just installed these moldings and started at the back..Alan is correct about paint build making the parts difficult to fit.