West End Alignment...Hoax?

Eagle

I want to clarify the no printout situation with West End. I got my car aligned there after me and my friends installed a set of SPL FUCA's, rear control arms and a set of Mines Ohlins ESTA coilovers.

After Chris finished aligning and corner balancing my car, he showed me a slip with the alignment numbers written down. Advised me to take a photo so I have a record of my baseline when it comes time to get the car aligned again. I believe Chris does his alignments mostly manually and therefore does not have access to a machine that records the numbers to be printed out. He did not need to remove my wheels to do the alignment.

After several track days I felt like it might be time to get realigned, so I took it to Corner 3 Garage since they are super close to where i live. I showed them the photo of the alignment slip and before they realigned the car, everything was very close to the original numbers provided by Chris. Only thing that needed some tweaking was my rear toe, we are talking between 1/16 and 2/32 of an inch difference. If I find my Corner 3 alignment sheet, i'd be happy to upload that here as well.

Anyway, not sure what happened in your case but I'm confident his numbers were spot on when he aligned my car and I had a VERY reputable second opinion to back that up. Chris and Darren are known for being very OCD and work on track cars that demand precise specifications all the time, I'd be very surprised if the numbers were indeed that far off

Whatever the case may be I hope it gets resolved properly.

Attached Images

alignment.jpg (210.8 KB, 18 views)

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Rusty

I was taught alignments on a Hunter A111 machine in 1983. That machine had prints outs. If West Ends machine doesn't have print outs. It's either a low cost machine or a relic.

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Eagle

It may not even be a machine, I have a distinct feeling it's all manual.

__________________

nismo| EVO-R High Wing | Stillen Gen 3 CAI | SEIBON TS Hood | Z1 34 Row Oil Cooler | VMR 810 Wheels | Endless MX72 Pads |Sabelt GT-140 Seat |Fly1Motorsports RS1 Fenders | Hotchkis Front Sway Bar | Berk HFC |

Rusty

That's what I'm thinking too. He's using turn plates with caster, camber gauges.

Something like this.

Attached Images

longacre-caster-camber-gauge-w-magnetic-adapter-lon-78260.jpg (175.2 KB, 15 views)

__________________

浪人 - 殺し屋
"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

marrawi

Thanks Eagle, I have posted the hand-written alignment report on the beginning of the thread. They do give one, but it is manual reading. The computer precision shown different numbers and toe to be pretty off.

I have been going to West End for over two years now, It's just this time was a bit rushed and it made me wonder. I didn't doubt them before. But if you see the numbers i got from JC auto, you'll see that their work is not flawless, and the reason is not them not know what they're doing, it is the absence of computer alignment machine.