The previous owner redid the trim around the windows and its pealing off. Can I just leave it off so just the chrome is showing or do I have to recover it?
The trim around the windows is primarily metal with a rubber type coating over it, I’m not sure if you’ll be able to remove that rubber and have it look OK. And if you did remove the rubber you’d probably want to paint the metal black. If you’re going to remove the coating I would test it on a spare piece from a junkyard. Or perhaps you may want to just pull some better condition ones from a junkyard to replace yours.
driver side trim
What about the trim on the driver side, like the rubber trim. It just left the chrome and now there’s a gap between the window and door panel at the end of the door.