I knew it was going to happen. Just had that bad feeling. Took it to a reputable (supposedly) alignment guy. Told him to get me as much Caster as possible, 1/8 toe in and .50-.75 camber if possible and I told him to stick his final alignment numbers in the car. Well when I got back home there was no alignment sheet to see the final numbers. The car drove awful, pulled to the right and it wouldn’t return to center because there was no center
First off, I feel your pain!
I have become like my career LEO dad in some ways, I am vigilant regarding my surroundings and who is doing what, but moreso, I have a very difficult time not discussing DETAILS that "should" be assumed, I just can't bring myself to "assume" ANYTHING except that if I don't review my expectations AND the route to get there, well I always regret not having gone over what any professional should know and do...
I usually apologize in advance, and then I go over the details of my expectations and what I believe it will take to get there.
I have always brought my 70 Roadrunner to the "old guy" Mr. Jerry down the road from my house. Accurate Alignment is the shop name, and I met him through a friend who was rebuilding classic cars, he used Mr. Jerry for all the alignments.
The first time I brought my car there, with all stock front suspension parts, he was the ONLY one who noticed my passenger side UCA was bent!! Not having my car very long, I wasn't aware of my options, like a pair of QA1 tubular UCAs that would have swapped in w/the rest being factory parts, so I spent too much w/Stephen's Performance for a nice, used factory UCA. Mr Jerry was VERY thorough, but he said he didn't have enough adjustment capability w/the factory setup to get the alignment "perfect" but he got it as good as he could, and I believe him.
When I had a LOT of what's in my signature installed, I replaced EVERYTHING in the front suspension, ALL QA1 except for the UCAs, which are SPC, because the "dual turnbuckle" design makes for a LOT of adjustability, and I swore I'd never hear "Your parts don't allow enough adjustment"
I just got my 2nd ever alignment with the all new front suspension, but I went to a local Goodyear shop. The MAIN reason is my best friend just bought a 71 Duster race car, but literally feared that it would kill him over 60 MPH or so, because the front suspension was that WHACKED OUT. He got Pat at Goodyear to do the alignment, and he goes WFO now at the track, and highly recommended him. The store manager and my friend and I all go back to our teenage years, so I went for it.
He did a GREAT job, and I'm happy to have a couple of options now that I can TRUST!
