240 wagon - useless trim?

[jkior]

On my '88 240DL wagon, there's a small, L-shaped piece of plastic trim on the upper rear corners, near the hinges. It covers a weld going up from the gutter. Does anyone know if that weld line can be ground down and finished flat with the surrounding area safely? (I think the area looks better without it, especially since I'm going for the simple lines on this, once I get it cleaned up.) I'm doing a certain amount of bodywork on other parts of the body anyway, so the work involved is no issue - I'm just wondering if anyone knows if it's structural in any way. I wouldn't think so, because there's no point having a weld line a great deal stronger than the surrounding sheet, but there must be some reason for it to be there. . .

The little black and chrome plastic piece comes off with a single Philips screw, btw.

Thanks,
mike

 

[the poi]

well, if its anything like the weld line on the 700 series by the c pillar, then its just how the panels are connected, and the trim piece is just an economical alternative to grinding it down. depending on how the weld is however, there may be some depressions under the plane of teh sheet metal, so you may have to do some filling, but since you're already doing bodywork i doubt thats aproblem...