Rear Brake Cooling Components, Explained

If you're converting a narrow-body car to wide-body, restoring a wrecked vehicle or, for whatever reason, lost some parts, it might not be obvious which pieces you need.

In the case of the rear quarterpanel brake cooling system, there are four components to be aware of.

The first is the large wheel well, which I do not produce due to its size and it being relatively easy-to-source an OEM part. (GM 15874589 and 15874590.) It Looks like this:

The second is the long brake duct which channels air from the scoop onto the brake rotor and caliper. I also do not produce this part. (GM 15842372, 15842373)

This leaves the scoop and bracket (highlighted in green in this image). Those two pieces snap-fit together, sandwiching the quarterpanel between them. The long brake duct (marked in red in the following image) snaps on to the bracket. 

Those three pieces snap together, securing the duct to the bracket and the scoop and bracket to the quarterpanel. (The other end of the duct is secured to the frame rail with a 10mm bolt.) 

We offer all four pieces - a bracket-and-scoop pair for the left and right sides - as a kit. Click here for details. 

When choosing a scoop and bracket from us or another vendor, it's important to know that most - but not all - of the available third-party options are incompatible with the brake cooling duct. For my application, I wanted to keep the functional cooling solution. That meant creating a reproduction scoop with OEM proportions and locking tabs and an OEM-style inner bracket which would snap to the scoop and the duct. These parts will fit any wide-body car with ~3.2mm or narrower panels, including OEM Chevrolet parts, Faircloth Composites and SS-Vette. 

Check out this post for more information on vendor-specific fitment.

Some other vendors, such as ACI, produce parts that, due to their manufacturing processes, tend to be much thicker than OEM. This can cause the OEM scoops - and thus our reproductions - not to fit properly. In one extreme case, a customer had ACI panels that were over 6mm (about 1/4") thick, making it impossible for the scoop and bracket to lock together. 

For that case, I can offer a custom scoop with offset locking tabs to allow for the thicker panel while still being compatible with the OEM brake duct. Reach out to me (sales@mtafab.com or use our contact form ) when placing an order for details.