Frank3

I took my Cutlass to a local shop for an alignment after rebuilding the front end .
I would normally use a shop just up the street from me who do nothing but alignments and related repairs , but after several failed attempts with them , I had to get it done .
Being most of the mechanics it this shop were conceived in the back seat of a well used car of this area , they had no idea where to start , or how to use shims .
Their machine didn't even go back past '78 .
I told then to pick a '78 Malibu or El Camino and go from there .
An hour and a half later , he was no closer to getting it in align than when I threw it together . He wanted me to come back when the owner was there because he would know what to do .
After asking how far he had gotten . he said he couldn't get the caster in , and hadn't started on the camber .
I told him to go about it the other way , camber first , then move shims between front and rear bolts to set caster .
Fifteen minutes later he had it aligned .
I can't really blame him for not knowing how to set up a shim front end ,most cars have eccentrics if they are adjustable at all anymore .

I wish I had my own alignment machine .