OK, here's the story.

The better of my 1200 shells has a rusted out rain gutter on the passanger side A pillar area. I drilled the spot welds out & the metal underneath is quite good. Now this panel is about the only good one on my parts car, so I could painstakingly remove it & weld it on.

However, I was thinking after looking at Steve Leerentveld's Torry in Street Machine that I could remove the gutters completely just as he did, I like the smooth look. Is this going to be an issue with a street driven car - ie: will I get wet/is it legal?

I cut them off and welded it all up on my 1000, I havent taken any pics yet to post.
I have never heard of it being a defect, my thoughts would be that it would actually make the car safer if a pedestrian was hit as there is no protuding metal to inflict more injury.
Will you get wet? well since there is no gutter to direct the rain water away from the open window my answer is yes as it will be sucked in when driving. You will also get more wind blowing in the window while driveing also, with this creating more noise.
Its a catch 22, you do it for the look and deal with the consequenses or dont do it.
Cheers Steve

I just looked and in this old pic of mine you can just work it out that they arent there.

Datsun 1200 "Standard" models didn't have them:

MOULDING SET-roof drip

... is for Deluxe, GL and GX only.

yeah but dd are you just talking about the chrome moulding or the complete gutter.

apparenlty you can get them as a rust repair strip from rare spares, I like the whole gutterless look though but if I do decide to keep them it's an easier option that cutting the other one off, i think I'd make a hell mess.

I'm convinced that the rain gutter on the A pillar is responsible for quite a bit of wind noise (with windows rolled up) but I haven't cut mine off so I don't know for sure. I would imagin that the main, if not only, reason for the absence of rain gutters on modern cars is wind noise. There is a 'gutter' built into the door seal of most modern cars to keep water from pouring in when you open the door.
What drives me crazy, is when I drive my wife's car in the rain with the window cracked open and all the water from the windshield pours in.

Looking closer, I think it is the chrome and not the entire drip rail. Standard cars must look weird ...

Angelo, yes the reason modern cars don't use drip rails is because it's an aerodynamic drag. This suggest it is also a source of noise.

well, it almost never rains here so I might give it a whirl.

The rain gutters on my XB are responsible for hacking a nice slash in my little finger. Washing the ute one day and bam, blood gushing everywhere! Nicked my finger on the gutter and should have had stitches. But you know what us blokes are like, bandaid and a beer and she'll be right. Finger went numb for a day or two, ahwell its all good

You guys say that you would get wet on a rainy day? Do you have the window down while its raining? Even in my '01 AU Falc you get water inside when you put the window down after/during rain.