Wheel Alignment, Is this excessive camber? Options

[fiacra]

1975 1.8 fully stock California car. I just put in turbo tie rods as well as a new trailing arm bushing, so alignment was needed. Not easy to find shops that do alignment on these cars, but a local member recommended a racing shop about 30 miles away and I took it there. They asked if I wanted it aligned for "street driving" and I confirmed that was the case. Let me emphasize that this is a stock California car in well maintained condition (a previous owner had it for 44 years and really took care of it) and I'm a really mild street driver. It is rare I'll use every one of the 76hp this can put out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) . Street driving only, no AX, no racing. It drove fine getting to the shop, no pulling, no vibration, etc. They told me it drove "much better" after alignment, and that the alignment was way off, especially in the rear. I couldn't tell any difference in how it drove pre and post alignment, but remember I drive for fun and I'm not by any means an aggressive driver. I brought a bunch of 914Rubber sourced shims with me, but they needed none of them and in fact returned to me a bunch of shims that were already on the car. I didn't notice it at the time I got the car back, but the next day I could see the rear wheel stance was significantly different, with (in my opinion) a lot of camber. Prior to the alignment it had maybe 1-2 degrees of camber. Again, I can't tell any difference in how the car drives, but maybe I could if I really pushed it? My question is, is this correct? I've really not seen this amount of camber on other members cars. Also, I kind of hate the rear tires leaning inward look. Not sure if I should take it back and ask for this to be "corrected." Other options are to live with it, or take it to another shop. Any thoughts? Is this amount of camber correct?

[MartyYeoman]

Sorry it took so long to post this.

[fiacra]

Sorry it took so long to post this.

Thanks Marty! Looks pretty much the same as mine. I did speak to the shop and initially got a wall of defensiveness, but he calmed down after a while and offered to recheck it last week. In the meantime I took it to our local expert, Bill Eason, who gave it a pretty thorough checking over and a hard drive and basically advised to drive it for a while and see how the tires wear. He feels the back end feels soft when changing lanes, but he attributes that to the springs rather than the alignment. Otherwise the car handles well. I decided not to go back to the shop (it's a long drive and I don't need to deal with anybody's attitude), but I do feel like I'd like the rear camber to be closer to factory spec rather than what the shop felt was going to give the best handling. I don't push the car nearly as hard as Bill did when he drove it, and I kind of hate that "knock knees" look. I'm wondering if I put the smallest shim (2mm) back in on both sides if that would be a bit better. This is all new stuff to me, so I'm doing a bit more research and trying to figure out if my thinking is too simplistic.

[bkrantz]

Sorry it took so long to post this.

Thanks Marty! Looks pretty much the same as mine. I did speak to the shop and initially got a wall of defensiveness, but he calmed down after a while and offered to recheck it last week. In the meantime I took it to our local expert, Bill Eason, who gave it a pretty thorough checking over and a hard drive and basically advised to drive it for a while and see how the tires wear. He feels the back end feels soft when changing lanes, but he attributes that to the springs rather than the alignment. Otherwise the car handles well. I decided not to go back to the shop (it's a long drive and I don't need to deal with anybody's attitude), but I do feel like I'd like the rear camber to be closer to factory spec rather than what the shop felt was going to give the best handling. I don't push the car nearly as hard as Bill did when he drove it, and I kind of hate that "knock knees" look. I'm wondering if I put the smallest shim (2mm) back in on both sides if that would be a bit better. This is all new stuff to me, so I'm doing a bit more research and trying to figure out if my thinking is too simplistic.

Probably a good decision. And I will always start with numbers first and then feelings (about most things in life). Almost 6° (if Marty is right) is insane, and 3° is way too much for driving on the street. I would advise aiming for 0.5°, even on both sides, and with proper toe. Whatever shims it takes to do that are the correct shims.