Brake dust shield removal for track car
 

Surprise surprise, when you want to put an 11" wilwood rotor on the rear, it doesn't quite clear the brake dust shield that is intended for a stock 1.6 rotor :loser:

No amount of hammering will make the shield clear it. I'm wondering how necessary the shield is for a track car - can I just cut it off and be done with it?

I cut the stock shields off the front hubs, but replaced them with the TSE brake duct shields, not sure if it's OK to just run no shield at all, or if there may be issues with rocks/debris/small children...

Any input?

Thanks
-Ryan

In the rear they might be needed to keep some heat in the rotors (insulation) :)

You are fiddling with the brakes (and use them) often enough to not need a dust/splash shield. It's a different thing on a DD with potential rust issues on the rear rotors.
Water splash on hot rotors might be an issue, but I have no data (only cracked one rear roror and don't remember the condition, found it when I came home).

Mine had no front ones for 10 years before I added TSE Prawns, but the consumption of OEM rotors never let the external dust play a role :)
In the rear I have just pushed them back to just clear the Sport rotors.

Cut away just the curved edge to leave you a razor sharp edge to cut yourself on? :fael:

Thanks for the input, that puts me at ease a bit. This ^ is what I tried after the big mallet didn't do the trick. The rotor is only 0.1" larger diameter than the Sport rear, but because it's a vented rotor its 3x as thick, so it sits way farther in. The shield had to go.

I think the angle grinder is my favorite tool...

-Ryan