1964 Valiant wheel allignment
I just bought this because I cant get a place near me to do a good alignment on anything and they charge 80 bucks.
That is why I started doing front-end alignments on my vehicles myself. Many reports from people who have worked as alignment tech's that many shops just bump the laser reflectors around until they get green readings on the machine for a clean printout, rather than actually make any adjustments on the car. So, your car drives out the same way it came in.
Caster would be hard to measure, but we can't get enough anyway on our cars with the factory adjusters, unless using bias-ply tires. I measure camber by holding a carpenter's level vertical against a tire, measure from ruler to rim at top and bottom and aim for slight lean-in (~1/8"). As mentioned, use a little more lean-in on right side to counter road camber if you drive a lot on 2-lane highways. For toe-in, I need a helper to hold the tape measure on a tire groove. I go as high up on the aft side while still clearing underbody stuff, then same height when measuring across the front. I tweak the adjusters until 1/16" less across fwd side. Drive around the block and bounce the front, then re-measure. Check if the steering wheel is centered when driving. Usually 2 passes to get it perfect. Best to set the front tires on slippery vinyl tiles so they rotate easy with the adjusters. Even 1/4 turn of a tie-rod adjuster makes a measurable difference on the tape measure (say 1/16"), so wonder how a laser-machine could do better.
Don't jack the front up by the frame since that changes toe-in. Indeed, that is why toe-in changes over time. As the springs sag and the front lowers, you will get toe-out which makes the car wander. That is likely why people find old cars undriveable. Easy fix in our cars, just raise the front to factory spec (or what you want), using the T-bar adjusters, then adjust toe-in. On the same note, if you do raise the ride height, that likely greatly increased toe-in. If you don't adjust it, your front tires will wear out very quickly. I made that mistake decades ago in my 1969 Dart, wearing out a set of new tires in just a 100 mile drive.
