who can you trust to give a proper alignment to a 914 and not fuck your car up by using what ever shims seem to work or just guessing

A shop with 914 experience would be the best thing. Where to find one near Belvedere IL, I don't know. (I don't even know where Belvedere is, and I grew up in Urbana...)

Have you considered doing the alignment yourself? A Google search on DIY suspension alignment will turn up a bunch of articles...

--DD

Is a DIY alignment really that effective? The only techniques I've heard of sound much like long multi-step processes where each step is prone to marginal errors, which when compounded by the process become significant. I have no real experience with DIY alignment, so people with experience, please chime in.

You can absolutly do your own alignment. It will take some time and an investment in a few tools but you can do as good a job, if not better, as any shop. Because you care.

Look thru the manuals at this site as a starting point.

http://www.smartracingproducts.com/

Note: you can build an accurate repeatable "914 specific" string set up very inexpesivly, less than $10.

And for a few hundred $ more you can do your own corner balance.

If you are going to be changing suspensions, experimenting with "the best toe" setting, etc. it will pay you to DIY.

Ken

I do my own camber...just for the hell of it...with a broke off tape measure & a hand level. Usually checks out to be within .1 deg or better.

I take the car to the guy up the street, tell them what I want for settings, stand there and watch them dial it in on their machine, then give them money. Building that kind of
realtionship with an alignment guy is a good idea, me thinks.

it seems like it would be possible to use a lazer instead of a srting.