DIY alignment?

I would like to do my own alignment. I figure I'm going to do them on both my cars and future cars, so I don't mind investing in equipment. What do I need in terms of equipment? What is the proper proceedure? Thanks in advance!

I hope your kidding you will need a alignment machine figure 2kfor an old used one and anohter 1-3k to get the heads fixed or 20k for a new state of the art one you will need a lift figure 4-5 k used 6-10 k new you will need a set of roller plates fronts are 1000 or so rears are another 1000 and your going to need to go to school so you have an idea what your doing so fine a class at the local comuity college x$

You can take the "your kidding" or I might propose another "if you have to ask, you probably shouldn't be doing" answer. If, however, you are very mechanically inclined and have worked on cars a lot yourself and have a decent handle on math, then you can do your own alignments. But you still have to make sure that's something you want to get good at. I do my own alignments and they are very accurate and hold very well, but that didn't happen the first time. First, caster is not adjustable. 2nd, camber is fairly easy with a decent level and ordinary tools like sockets and a decent dial caliper. You need to apply some math. For example, -2 degrees on a 25" tire is 0.87" which is easy enough to measure with the above tools. Actually, you'd be measuring at the wheel, so you need to correct for that. 3rd, toe is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH harder because it is more sensitive. Also, you're not talking an inch which you can practically eyeball. You're talking hundredths of an inch. You need a laser and construct some targets, etc. You won't save any money by doing your own camber and having an alignment shop do the toe. Also, you can't change camber without really throwing your toe out of whack, so don't try it. And, you need to have some clue about how changes in alignment affect the handling. And, it's time consuming to do. And reiterative. I would only recommend trying to do it if it's something you plan on doing on a regular basis and, for example, you track your Elise and envision changing the suspension a lot or trying different setups, etc. PM me if you really still think you want to do it. All disclaimers apply.

I aligned my Jag XKE after rebuilding the entire suspension. I have aligned other cars as well and most recently my DD Jeep after installing a lift kit. After aligning a few cars and understanding suspensions and handling you realize like anything else that the factory specs are a "one size fits all" and you may actually improve the way the car handles relative to your driving style. You can accentuate certain characteristics by tweeking different things and gain a lot of satisfaction knowing you made the car handle according to what's important to you, and better than the factory specs. I just used things I had around the house for tools like chalk, 8' aluminun extrusions for straight edges, duct tape, string, carpenters levels and squares, tape measures and dial calipers. Every alignment went very well, although some changes were made to reduce bump steer and improve tire wear. To align the Porsche I would build some height adjustable boxes that would sit under the tires to raise the car up about 15 inches. This will allow you to crawl under it to make adjustments without disturbing the suspension. Read up on the subject, know where you want to be and what to adjust to get there. Good luck!

For setting Tou you can use Smart Strings and for setting camber try the Longacre digital or regular gauge or SmartCamber.

Thanks guys! I definitely wasn't kidding. I work on my own cars and can handle most math and engineering work. I just need advice and to know what the proper equipment is. The Smart Strings and camber gagues look pretty stright forward. I also have the shop manual that explains how to "properly" go about adjusting the camber and toe. What is the most cost effective setup for getting the car off the ground so I can adjust the settings with the wheels on?

Alignments can be done one the floor, but you will have to lift the car to set the toe and drive it and move it back to the place where you measured it to check it again. Its a long process and takes hours to get it done right. Many racecars are set one the floor at the track and works fine so you don't need all of that equipment to set the car in the air. FWIW you probably can find some old shop eqipment that is for sale that has four aligment stands for a good price, but it will take you a while to find them. You can build your own smart string with a couple of standing poles string and a leveler.

Here's a DIY from my Supra days... http://www.mkiv.com/techarticles/alignment/index.html

Thanks guys! I'm sure I'll have some more questions once I start going...

So how is it some dip ****s with a machine at the local shop can pull this complcated math stuff off and get $100+ for an allingment.

Most machine don't need to use math to compute the angles. There are premade angle measures that will measure degrees for the camber. The hard part is getting the toe measured without a machine as it takes accurate measurements of the strings and the actual toe. Not to mention the hard to reach adjustments that will throw off your measurements.