There's a bit of rubber under the hood that I was wondering if it would be safe to remove. I guess it's there to prevent rain from seeping in or something, but it seems that it is rubbing against my headlight when it flips up and down, and it's caused the paint in the corner to chip. Since it's rubber, just trying to push it back doesn't really do any good. So would it be safe to just rip it out?

 

just trim it

 

That would work, I suppose they don't need to be completely removed.