Straightening a 914, no one around here has a cellette Options

[FourBlades]

I am thinking of putting my IMSA car on a frame jig and having it pulled totally straight. It was pretty hard getting the front suspension to line up when I installed it and the rear needs about an inch of spacers to get the camber right.

I have not found anyone nearby that has a cellette bench to do the work.

Will shops with other systems be able to get this done?

This car has a 10 point roll cage in it, I hope to leave it as it and not cut any, but I guess I can replace some tubes if I have to.

Can the experts give me some advice here about how to go about this or if this is a good idea. If you have been through this and don't mind sharing your experiences and costs it would be great.

Thanks,

John

[FourBlades]

Thanks for all the advice!

Mark: I will contact cellette and see where there is a shop, good idea.

I get the idea that the cage makes it hard to change. I am hoping the car was straight when they installed the cage. It has seen some front impacts and one side impact since then. If I had to cut the rear pick up tubes or those in the front trunk that would not be too hard to replace.

When I had the car upside down I measured a lot of side to side and diagonal measurements between suspension mounting holes that all looked good. I also leveled the car and did not see any lengthwise twist in it. I did not measure any of the vertical distances and I think this is what is off. I need to try to measure that while the car is on the wheels.

Maybe I should take the car in for an alignment and see what the shop says about that? It would be about $400 for Porsche to do it and maybe I would learn how far off it is?

I'd like to get this right before moving on and painting the car only to find out the handling is tweaked. Am I being overly cautious?

John

[SirAndy]

I am hoping the car was straight when they installed the cage.

Don't bet on it.
I made the same mistake, no one else to blame here. I had the cage installed without checking the car for previous damage first.

When i finally found out that the chassis was tweaked we had to cut the cage to be able to pull the car back. The cage was just too strong.
After the pulling we then had to bend the cage to match the now straight car. It all worked out OK in the end but it was a lot of work to get there ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

[FourBlades]

I am hoping the car was straight when they installed the cage.

Don't bet on it.
I made the same mistake, no one else to blame here. I had the cage installed without checking the car for previous damage first.

When i finally found out that the chassis was tweaked we had to cut the cage to be able to pull the car back. The cage was just too strong.
After the pulling we then had to bend the cage to match the now straight car. It all worked out OK in the end but it was a lot of work to get there ...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

I remember reading your celette story.

How many tubes had to be cut?

Where did you cut them?

John