So, if you haven't noticed I've been posting a couple of questions of about body parts. I'm restoring my old 4Runner, and I'm discovering the car all over again. With the help from this forum I felt like I fixed most everything mechanical that broke or needed upgrading, so I'm now learning all the bits about the body.

The trim around the rear side windows was cracking. I thought it was just the paint on the trim weathering. I tried to sand it down, didn't have much luck. I then used paint stripper on it. I was kind of shocked to find it didn't work. But it did lift the "paint" off the trim, so I tried to pull. I found out that it's in fact rubber. And not only is it rubber it has a flange of rubber around the trim.

Now I have partially torn off and sanded down rubber coated trim. At this point I can't just paint over it. I'm not sure I could have to being with since the rubber was pretty bad cracked.

Any suggestions? I'm feeling I should just remove the trim from the glass and cut off the rubber, paint it and be done. But I'm worried about loosing the flange part. Will it look weird not having the flange? Does the flange provide any function or is it just esthetics.