What is a home alignment?
You guys are killing me!!! Hahahaha. A home alignment??? I dont get why guys dont do their own alignments. Really, its easy. And I got his statement, get a limp alignment at home so you can have WHO ever do the final adjustments.
All you guys doing this front end suspension work should be able to do a final alignment, home or where ever you work on your car. You have the skill. HELL, you were determined to toss in all these parts, you gotta know how they interact? Right.
You did buy a certain part with the knowledge on why it helps right. Im hoping anyway. Instead of just buying parts cause someone said it is better. Understand the geometry of the suspension. Know why you put a certain part in there. When you do then its simple to see why a run of the mill alignment wont work.
You go into a shop and say you have a whatever 60s car and for the most part he is gonna look up the specs for that year. Yup, bias ply tires, weak shocks, lots of positive camber for safety along with a caster that is WAY below where it should be, safety thing again. Toe will be about the only thing that is common from the 60s car you own and the 60s specs he will look up.
Yer getting a spec alignment for yer money. Not to say there arent some guys that cant do a custom alignment, but yer gonna have to feed him all the specs anyway, do it YOURSELF!!
Its really simple, the alignment, not getting it right. The process is simple, getting it right can be a juggle. Even you can toss in the "stock" numbers and get it right on, for those specs., Prolly what you do for the limp in alignment, maybe just dont go to the precise measurements cause its a limp in thing. So all he will do is get them in the precise numbers. Off you go, happy. .
But if you want it right then you need to do it yourself. If you want some 60s numbers tossed in there and feel good about it, thinking thats the ticket, and drive off feeling like you are set go with that. Its far from right. But if it makes you feel like your car is aligned, then cool.
The simple "home" alignment you did to limp into the shop was prolly as good as they sent you out with.
So if the piece of mind thinking a real alignment guy did my alignment and now yer set for the road helps you sleep at night then thats prolly the road you need to take. Cause you may not trust your own abilities. Thats fine. Get a better sleep, wont be a better ride.
And Im not saying you can improve on the alignment the shop will give you. You may be limited on the camber and toe. But!!! Caster?? Thats a biggy that seems to be overlooked. With a decent amount of caster you can overcome the camber gain issues that you may be lacking and cant change.
Im not saying you cant get a decent alignment, Im saying you might be able to get a better setup at "home" because you know your suspension. Or at least do as well as the shop that takes the old 60s specs and goes with that.
If they plug in the 60s numbers you may be worse than the limp in alignment you did,
Tires guys, if yer tires are rounding off at the outer edges and you think its cause you are taking turns too fast yer prolly not, maybe alignment. If the inner edge is eaten up then its a 60s alignment.
My ONLY point is you can do yer own alignment. But if the kid at goodyear makes you feel all warm and fuzzy then cool, take him home with you, sleep better at night.
Do yer own alignments. Not rocket science... JR