Rear Brake Back Plate repair?

[barker_001]

I'm going to be overhauling my brakes shortly, but am already aware that the back plates are pretty flaky around the edges. However the central parts are fine. I'm considering carrying out a fibreglass repair to the edges, since this is non-structural and basically just a guard. Any thoughts on whether the hub and guard are likely to get too hot for fibreglass under braking, or any other potential pitfalls?

[Pete Boole]

Front or rear back-plates? Assuming front - I'd be tempted to cut off the offending rusty bits and cut some repair sections from steel - should be easy enough to get someone to weld them together. Any photos of how bad they are?

Pete

[barker_001]

It's the rear ones. At the front I would agree there is more of a heat issue needing a metal repair, but the rears don't seem to do a lot of work. I haven't started yet, so will get some photos when I do. Just thinking ahead!

[Pete Boole]

I've got a vague recollection that I may have a rear one in my "man cave" - I'll have a look tomorrow if I get chance.

Pete

[bash]

You can run the rear brakes without the splash shield, it doesnt seem to make alot of difference as long as the central part is sound as this carries the handbrake mechanism.

Bash

[amarshall]

I've got a vague recollection that I may have a rear one in my "man cave" - I'll have a look tomorrow if I get chance.

Pete

If it's decent, may I borrow it for a few days to see if I can find somewhere to copy it?

[barker_001]

I've got a vague recollection that I may have a rear one in my "man cave" - I'll have a look tomorrow if I get chance.

Pete

If it's decent, may I borrow it for a few days to see if I can find somewhere to copy it?

That would be a great plan, in order to get some reasonably priced new ones made available. Thank you for the offer Pete, if it's OK with you I'll have a look at exactly what state mine are in first.

[Pete Boole]

I'll have opportunity early next week to look for it - I keep some stuff stored "off site".

Pete

[fueltheburn]

So long as you keep the section that retains the handbrake cable the extra material around the edge on the rears is just extra weight.

[barker_001]

After a gentle but thorough wire brushing and copious application of rust converter, the back plates weren't as bad as I feared. There were a couple of holes around the edges which I managed to patch using thick aluminium foil tape (the fibreglass method just didn't work). A good application of black Smoothrite and hopefully they will go on for a few more years.

The brake overhaul took a little longer than expected (yes, I should know by now... ) My MOT tester commented last time that my handbrake only just passed, and one side was noticeably worse than the other. Having seen the shoes in reasonable condition last time I was in there, I hoped it would just be a clean up and adjustment. However, on one side, both the linings had detached from the shoes and were floating around inside the drum! I bought some replacements from brakeparts.co.uk (for the MA61 Supra), but found that they didn't fit. The shoes were slightly longer than the originals, which translated into a larger diameter, and so the shoes wouldn't fit inside the disc when it was offered up. Brakeparts.co.uk, to their credit, gave a full refund. As an alternative, I had the originals relined at a local company in Cardiff. Great service, and had them back within 24 hours. The 2mm friction material is apparently quite hard to find, but they had a stock of it:

http://www.industrialfriction.com/

New Brembo rear discs, EBC pads, and clips also fitted - I'll add the part numbers in the Alternative Parts thread.