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I am working on my old 1994 Ford Ranger. It only has 130,000 miles on it, but the heat / dust shield from behind both rotors have pretty much had it. Problem is, litterally NO ONE has them, not Ford dealers, Autozone, Napa, and not even any salvage yards cause the design changed in 1995, so any thing a salvage yard might have is already in worse shape than mine. And yup I did call anyways and that was the case.
I do have enough of these shields that a local laser cutting machine shop says they can make some custom exact copies out of stainless for me. But it would be $100 dollars for both of them ( about $50 each). I would be willing to fork over that much since they would be stainless and would last almost forever ( I plan on keeping this truck until it won’t go no more, maybe longer with a engine rebuild ) But if they really serve no purpose other than an extra expense, than I won’t bother and it will let me get the rotors and everything back on and driving down the road again.
As far as I can tell, they keep rock from bouncing up and getting lodged between the rotor and the brake pads. But is that really a concern? Or just another part to sell?
Thank you and God Bless!!
P.S. will attach pictures if anyone feels they need them.
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You did mention a reason for having the dust shield. Plus if you live where road salting is required the shields would also protect rotors, calipers, wheel cylinder and so on. Your call though.
I had to replace the rear shields on my 03 Altima with it being a dealer item plus they must be made of gold because they cost almost $100 per side.
wow!!! so $100 for custom made stainless shields isn’t that bad after all. lol Altima is chevy right? Sorry not up on various car models.
I’ve been replacing every part I can with stainless. Found 20 feet of really great quality stainless 3/16 brake lines on Amazon for about $38. So replacing all the rusted out ones while I’m in there. And the shock suspension bolt broke off. So I replaced it with a stainless 5/8 bolt. Bout 10 bucks there. And made a few other things and brackets from scrap stainless from a local machine shop I got for free. So I am actually kind of gratefull these things are made so crappy, yet expensive. Gives a great reason to make my own and get much better quality for about the same, if not less money. Gotta love it. 😀
heres a link that might help.
Awesome. But I have a 2 wheel drive version. Sorry I didn’t mention that at the beginning. And from the looks of it, only the 4 wheel drive is available. $30 isn’t bad though, just I can’t use them.
But that is the first place I’ve seen to actually carry that part back to that far!!! How did you find it??
**Edit:: Oh also, the machine shop that was going to make both shields for $100 dollars, they were going to use 1/16 inch stainless. So thicker than the originals, and rust proof.
google see if this helps:woohoo:
Those backing plates also keep water from the backside of the rotor in wet weather, and water directly on the hot brake rotors can cause warping of the rotors as well as brake fade. They definitely serve a purpose, but I would be hard pressed to spend $100 for a custom set for an 18 year old vehicle. I guess if I intended to keep it for a long time as you do, I might, but it would also depend on how bad a shape the originals are.
I’d be looking at the big picture here. How would you use this truck? What shape is the rest of the truck in? If it’s in fair shape and not ready for the junk yard and not ready for the showroom either I might let it go OR just leave what is left in place. You might even go so far as to make some ‘temporary’ ones out of what’s left of yours and some tiger hair body filler. I think if you plan to keep the truck for another 5 years get the stainless made, if it’s only going to be another year or so do what you can to get by either by taking them away or fixing the ones you have. They do put those shields there for a reason and they do help keep debris out of the braking system but disc brakes are ‘self cleaning’ by design so they should be able to hold up OK.
heres another possibility.let me
know if this works for you.I’d be looking at the big picture here. How would you use this truck? What shape is the rest of the truck in? If it’s in fair shape and not ready for the junk yard and not ready for the showroom either I might let it go OR just leave what is left in place. You might even go so far as to make some ‘temporary’ ones out of what’s left of yours and some tiger hair body filler. I think if you plan to keep the truck for another 5 years get the stainless made, if it’s only going to be another year or so do what you can to get by either by taking them away or fixing the ones you have. They do put those shields there for a reason and they do help keep debris out of the braking system but disc brakes are ‘self cleaning’ by design so they should be able to hold up OK.
Almost my exact idea @EricTheCarGuy :-D…. I do plan on having this truck for atleast anouther 5 to 10 years, so I am trying to replace any part that needs replacing with better quality than what the original was. The truck is almost like a time machine cause was kept in a garage for the first 10 years of its life. Now we have owned it for the past 8 or so, the salt and sand has really done numbers on the under body. To the point that the shackles and leaf springs broke off the frame 2 years ago. Put all new leaf springs from JCWhitney and OEM shackles from a local Ford dealer.
And now that I’m doing brake line work anyways and the screw holes for those backing plates / shields were almost non-existent, I wanted to do something about them while it was all disassembled. Plus replacing all the brake lines on the front with that Stainless 3/16 line. So these custom plates should last until the next ice age. By then it will have a new body with stainless steal doors and hood 😉
I am of the mindset that if we future proof our vehicles and truly care for them, we will get much more value out of them than any re-sell amount could give. Cause each time you buy a new care, you get all its issues that havn’t shown up yet, and the ones that previous owner fails to mention. But keeping your current one, as long as it gets the job done and meets your needs. You continually become more familiar with it, its usual quarks and issues. And as you try fix them to better quality than the original. You eventually have a much more reliable vehicle as a pay back of the hard work. Definition of sweat equity I believe 😀 Rant ending now.
heres another possibility.let me
know if this works for you.I’m not sure, but I think those are installed between the rotor and the outside wheel right? The ones I need go behind rotor and hub. Thank you for looking though!!! I dropped the shields off at the machine shop yesterday and he said it would be a couple weeks since its not their main business. Which is fine cause we have 2 other vehicles currently. Thank you guys!! Any more info or discussion would be awesome though, always love chatting with intelligent and mechanically inclined folks.
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