Anyone do their own alignment?
 

I've always wanted to adjust my camber, caster, toe...at home. I've seen several different gauges, which seem pretty easy to use.

Has anyone tried (or use) any of these?

Longacre camber/caster gauges (either the digital or bubble)
Fastrax camber caster gauge w/ toe attachment
Turnplates

Anyway, just looking for some input. It'd be nice to check my camber, caster, toe at will on all my vehicles.

Thanks!

Just thinking out loud here, but wouldn't you rather just spend the money and have the experts do it for you? On top of that, they would use the state of the art equipment to align your car and not the do-it-yourselfer stuff you listed.

I mean I get what you're trying to do and it's admirable to try to do things on your own, but there's a point it's a fruitless endeavor IMHO. Especially when you can have experts do it for you using the proper equipment.

Some people like to do things themselves. And most guys doing alignments at firestone or whatever aren't anywhere near being an "expert." For them getting the numbers to turn green on the display is good enough.

That stuff is a good start. You'll also want a level surface. A cheap laser level plus some linoleum tiles works well.

To set the toe and make sure there is no thrust strings tied to jackstands works. The fancy way is a real string setup or something like these but unless you are getting paid to do alignments it's a little pricey.

Since you live in Socal, you always have the option to go to West End in Gardena. That's if you live somewhat close and want a top of the line alignment. West End is considered to be the best among many that track there cars.

This would be really cool, especially if you want to change suspension ride heights often.

most of the stuff you have posted there you could make at home for ALOT cheaper.

camber gauge can be made with a digital level and scrap flat stock

toe can be done with a tape measure and some sheet metal

the plates you have on the bottom can be made with 2 plates and some grease

here are some DIY rigs for ideas
http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/c...e/viewall.html

http://www.elantragtclub.com/id554.html

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZoL1gaWedA"]DIY Alignment - Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjcP07VKVZM&feature=fvwrel"]DIY Alignment - Part 2 - YouTube[/ame]

There is a DIY on nasioc that is really good. I'd post the link but I'm on my phone.

Toe is pretty easy to do yourself, you just have to be very precise in your measurements. I haven't had much luck with camber though, since my garage isn't very level, but that tile method above looks like it would work.
If you do a lot of track days or autocross, it's great to be able to do this stuff yourself to experiment with different settings. The professional alignments are too expensive for that.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I watched several of these DIY videos last week, but to be honest...I'd rather just pay for an easy to use gauge. From what I've read, the digital Longacre gauges are pretty accurate and easy to use.

I have a great shop I've always used for my alignments before I track my cars. However, it'd be nice to quickly check the specs on all my vehicles. Between my wife's vehicle, my truck, the FR-S and my daughters cars...it gets tiring and expensive doing alignments so frequently.

I do my own. I use Smart Strings and the Smart Camber kit. Depending how long it takes us to get the string square (usually up to 30 minutes to be perfect), it takes us about 1.5 hours to align a car exactly the way we want. Since I tend to do as many as 4 per year per car I race, it's well worth the savings especially since I borrow the tools from a good friend.

I typically use Darin at West End's services if I have to go to a shop.

Between West End visits, I use two lengths of conduit on jack stands and some string, although Smart Strings would be the best. I can typically get it within 1/32" by spending a lot of time on setup. The Smart Strings work on any surface and would be easier to swap from car to car.

For camber/caster, I use a Longacre setup with their digital gauge for camber and bubble for caster. I recommend finding a DIY for turn plates, as they come in handy for caster changes.

I've seen ALMS LMP teams align their race cars with string, and tape measures. As long as you know the car is level in both axis as a starting point you can get VERY accurate results without laser tools.