I never actually noticed until now, but my '89 GTA doesn't have the backing plate/dust covers mounted behind the rear discs. I guess the previous owner took them off or perhaps a shop that serviced the rear brakes forgot to put them back on or something. However, I never had the rear brakes worked on since I owned it. Can you still get these parts from GM?

If not, are the rear disc backing plates the same on all BW 9-bolts? Or, do I have to find a pair from the same year car? In '90, they went back to using the corporate GM 10-bolt so I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not.

 

IIRC, some rears had the the dust shield, some didn't. The rear I purchased my conversion parts from, for example, didn't.

JamesC

 

On my 89 9-bolt, the dust shields are welded on, so they were either taken off or not installed which I find hard to belive. But again a lot can happen in 20+ years.

 

Apparently, there were two designs:

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/susp...ht=dust+shield

JamesC

 

I have a set for sale off my old 9 bolt if you really want them......

 

Thanks for the link!

I guess mine never came with them because the car was mostly original when I purchased it back in '96. I see no evidence of previous weld marks or anything like that. Just a small cadmium plated backing plate that's bolted to the axle behind the wheel flange. No dust shield.

I appreciate the offer Saber, but no use in getting the dust shields if my car never originally had them.

I'm wondering if the reason why they were omitted on some cars was due to cost, manufacturer design change, or simply because they ran out of parts? After all, '89 was the last year for the Borg Warner so maybe the 20th anniv T/A's got the dust shields first and then the rest were omitted when they finally ran out of parts for the "lesser" Firebird/Camaro models?

 

Take your pick of the above .

JamesC

 

They are actually snow shields. It depends where the car was ordered or shipped to for sale that determined if it got them or not. Most of the cars I buy in the midwest and above have them. 7 out of the 8 I have bought in the deep south have not. I don't drive my cars in the winter so i remove them for better cooling. When was the last time you had to drive your fbody in 2 1/2' of snow.

 

Sounds good, but I don't think GM worked that way. Also, unless you are the original owner you really don't know what happemed to so tacked on dust shields. They had a fault of beaking the tack welds and rattling.