Rear brake shield

My rear brake shields have rusted pretty substantially and will obviously only get much worse. I am coming across it because I am fixing my rear parking brake line and parking brake shoes. I am unsure about replacing the shoes now after looking a bit closer at my shields as they are essentially what the parking brake shoes will need to rest against.
I have been at the JY doing some part hunting and found that you have to remove everything down to the rear axle to get a new brake shield. (Good learning experience. I am now confident and committed to doing my own brakes)
This all finally brings me to my question, assuming there is nothing wrong with my rear axle assembly, will removing it to replace the brake shields essentially create a problem that requires replacing some or all of the assembly?