Remove special character from input form at checkout?

I’m trying to remove a dash ('-') from an input field (Zip Code) at checkout, but can get it to work. I want to clean just the initial character if a user enters the dash at the beginning of the zip to remove it; so, from this -98001 to this 98001. I’ve tried to do it at the shipping validator JS and it works but of course when the order gets placed the character still comes in the order.
And, here’s what I’ve tried, which works at the frontend, but need it work when it gets posted to the database:

postcodeValidation: function (postcodeElement) {
    var countryId = $('select[name="country_id"]:visible').val(),
    validationResult,
    warnMessage,
    char = "-";

        if (postcodeElement == null || postcodeElement.value() == null) {
            return true;
        }

        postcodeElement.warn(null);
        validationResult = postcodeValidator.validate(postcodeElement.value(), 
        countryId);

        if (!validationResult) {
            warnMessage = $t('Provided Zip/Postal Code seems to be invalid.');

            if (postcodeValidator.validatedPostCodeExample.length) {
                warnMessage += $t(' Example: ') + 
            postcodeValidator.validatedPostCodeExample.join('; ') + '. ';
            }
            warnMessage += $t('If you believe it is the right one you can ignore this 
            notice.');
            postcodeElement.warn(warnMessage);
                
            // ****** This works an it cleans the dash but only at the frontend ******
            
            if (postcodeElement.value().startsWith(char)) {
            postcodeElement.value().replace(/^-/, "");
            
            // ***********************************************************************
         }
     }
return validationResult;
}

How could I achieve the same, so when the zip code gets posted it goes from this -98001 to this 98001 in the database? Any suggestions are appreciated!!