The investigated ionic C60 derivative self-assembles into nanorods. When the functional side groups are removed by heating the nanorods to 623 K, they retain their shape. Utilization of lithographic markers allows the study of identical nanostructures before and after heat treatment by dynamic mode atomic force microscopy. Various independent techniques, including Raman spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy demonstrate that the shape-preserving mechanism is a thermal-stripping process, stabilizing the original supramolecular morphology. The latter implies two coherent sub-processes: detachment of the side groups and oligopolymerization running in parallel, eventually yielding rod-shaped C60 polymers. Synthesizing fullerenic polymers in this way can lead to several applications.