Keith Tanner wrote: Find a shop that has a race car parked out back. Doesn't need to be a top-level road racer, even a battered dirt tracker will do. Says everything you need to know about the guys who work there. ...
Careful;
I went to a local mazda dealer, saw a 80's turbo RX-7 in stock but DD'd condition, and a split window vette in driver (not show) condition sitting inside where the 'techs parked their personal vehicles.
Provided a wish list of alignment settings, service manager said "No problem!" I smiled and waited for my alignment.
An hour later, all done, the service manager rang me out. I asked for a print out of the numbers before and after to see how close my eyeballs are. He handed me one sheet after struggling with the computer for a while showing one degree POSITIVE camber on the front, and 1.8 degrees negative (close to requested) on the rear. I asked if that was the before settings, guy had no clue, said ask the mechanic, who is gone for the day.
Took me 3 days to coordinate a PHONE CALL with the mechanic, at which time I was sure I could see the positive camber on the front. I wanted to clarify with the mechanic that I did not have notable bent pieces and he said everything was perfect, and one degree POSITIVE was as close as he could get to one degree negative... He said there were "so many adjustments" that it was impossible to get it any closer.
He also left all the alignment bolts loose so it clunked at every turn.
I spent a day leveling my buddy's garage floor with wood and tiles, bought a $30 angle gauge off amazon and got everything to "close enough" but within a half degree all around. Car drove completely different.
In reply to the FM stands, they are the same cost as paying two garages to screw up two alignments...
Things like this are why people struggle financially to drive new cars, its just impossible, in my experience to PAY someone MONEY to fix a car properly. They can't fix cars on their own and dislike literally throwing money away on old cars.
