Alignment shop - chain store or Mom & Pop?

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Righty Tighty

Blame it on the dog
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I rebuilt the front end recently during an engine rebuild, and once the engine is running I'm going to need to take the car in for an alignment (obviously). There's a shop nearby that's a chain, which I take my Tacoma to for tires and alignments, and they do good work. This is my first older car that I've needed an alignment on, so my question is do you guys trust chain or franchise shops to do your alignments? How much different is it to do an alignment on an older car, versus modern vehicles? Is it simpler, or will these guys be scratching their heads trying to figure it out?

Before everyone immediately jumps in and says I should always support the locally owned shops, I always try to. I don't think there's a locally owned shop nearby that does alignments, and I don't want to drive 25 miles on the interstate on a fresh front end. That's the only reason I'm considering the chain that's a 5 minute drive away.
 
Easy.. mom and pop...
Your factory settings are for bias ply tires likely not radials.. if you take it to somebody who doesn't know these cars you're likely not going to get the alignment that you really want...
For your Tacoma it's fine, for these old cars you need somebody who knows what they're doing...
 
It just depends on the person doing the alignments. Has nothing to do with the establishment. Ask them. My Les Shwab guys know their stuff.
 
I rebuilt the front end recently during an engine rebuild, and once the engine is running I'm going to need to take the car in for an alignment (obviously). There's a shop nearby that's a chain, which I take my Tacoma to for tires and alignments, and they do good work. This is my first older car that I've needed an alignment on, so my question is do you guys trust chain or franchise shops to do your alignments? How much different is it to do an alignment on an older car, versus modern vehicles? Is it simpler, or will these guys be scratching their heads trying to figure it out?

Before everyone immediately jumps in and says I should always support the locally owned shops, I always try to. I don't think there's a locally owned shop nearby that does alignments, and I don't want to drive 25 miles on the interstate on a fresh front end. That's the only reason I'm considering the chain that's a 5 minute drive away.
If your control arms have the cam style adjusters than it's no different than many modern trucks. Call around and ask first because some shops wont have specs. As for trusting a chain vs mom and pop, I've found good and bad in both categories. It really just depends on each locations individual crews.
 
This was the picture that I copied off the Forum here and gave to my friend who worked at a mom-and-pop alignment shop and told him what I wanted...
Screenshot_20200808-160141.png
 
Ask around to some rodders in your town for a frame shop that does old cars. They usually have someone who knows how the older cars work, and there’s usually one nearby!
 
Thanks guys, I'll call around. I suppose I could trailer it to a shop if I can't find one nearby.
 
It's definitely worth it to find an old school guy. The young guys at the chain shops will just shrug and say "it's not on the computer".
 
Thanks guys, I'll call around. I suppose I could trailer it to a shop if I can't find one nearby.

if you know of some older Mopar guys in town, ask around if any of them can put a quickie alignment on it to get you there. My buddy does an incredibly close job of it just by sight!
 
Ask around to some rodders in your town for a frame shop that does old cars. They usually have someone who knows how the older cars work, and there’s usually one nearby!

Good thought. Come to think of it, there's a guy a block away that has a backyard shop who's always got hot rods on his lift. If he doesn't do them himself, I'd bet he could point me in the right direction.
 
Good thought. Come to think of it, there's a guy a block away that has a backyard shop who's always got hot rods on his lift. If he doesn't do them himself, I'd bet he could point me in the right direction.

definetely try him first! Good plan!
 
Seems you could get it close yourself if you can rebuild the suspension and engine.
 
Seems you could get it close yourself if you can rebuild the suspension and engine.

I'm confident it's pretty close. I'm just nervous about taking it too far without having it dialed perfectly. Or is that just a wives' tale?
 
I'm confident it's pretty close. I'm just nervous about taking it too far without having it dialed perfectly. Or is that just a wives' tale?
Toe is the biggest tire wearer. I wouldnt worry about 25 miles if you eyeballed the camber and set the toe
 
It just depends on the person doing the alignments. Has nothing to do with the establishment. Ask them. My Les Shwab guys know their stuff.

The ones around here don't. They use "torque wrenches" and then jump up and down on them like a breaker bar. You cannot even trust them to check tire pressure. I won't and don't go there
 
The ones around here don't. They use "torque wrenches" and then jump up and down on them like a breaker bar. You cannot even trust them to check tire pressure. I won't and don't go there
Ya the tire techs suck but we have a good alignment mechanic. I rotate my own stuff and re check any tire work they do.
 
The modern shops near me can't and won't align to anything other than factory specs, or so they say. Yours may be different but there's a really good chance they will be the same way. I'd find an "old white beard" and get him to do it according to the skosch chart so your car will be up to all the work you just did and not meander like an old bias ply car on radials. You will be glad you went to the effort to not use the modern computer guys. Or....learn to align yourself! It's not difficult and doesn't really require many tools.
 
Mom and Pop is the way to go, short of doing it yourself. The big chains have lost touch!
 
Ive been weary of most of the big chain tire store shops since one of the alignment kids stripped an adjustment bolt trying run up on of my torsion bar adjuster, using his air gun with the weight on the suspension.
He admittedly didnt understand the torsion bar design.
So, if I can speak to a guy in a Mom and Pop shop first, I can get a better idea if they understand the older Mopars.
Plus most decent Mom and Pop shops will let u hang around while they work on your classic car.
Big stores wont let you past the chains. Lol
 
I bought all the stuff to do my own then I can ***** at myself if I get it wrong. If your crafty you can make most of the stuff to do it.
 
Any chain you take it to will be dickholes about it because they won't know how to align it and they'll blame it on you. Mom and pop all the way.
 
I bought a used alignment machine, outdated so to speak.
The computer has specs back to the 40’s.
it does what i need it to do,for $750 i couldnt go wrong.
 
Thanks folks, I'll be asking around. I actually feel like I should apologize considering how many alignment threads there are already, and one with a pretty similar question to mine.
 
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