The Ultimate DIY Alignment Rig
Individually bagged fasteners, parts, and small tools.
Again, the attention to detail comes through.

CSM not only individually bags all of the fasteners and hardware, but they include the hand tools you’ll need to assemble and use the stands, too. The only thing not pictured are the two tape measures that showed up separately due to a last-minute stock issue. Even that was handled expertly, as CSM drop-shipped the tape measures directly to me from their supplier.

 

Countersunk socket head screws and machined aluminum plates sitting on floor.
The first step is to attach the sides of the stands to the base.

 

Inch pounds torque wrench and allen driver laying on assembled base.
The instructions specified a tiny numbered torque spec, so I obliged.

 

Can of WD-40 sitting on floor next to base with long shoulder bolts and plates next to it.
The plates that bolt to the hubs are attached to the base using long shoulder bolts.

The shoulder bolts allow the base to articulate in relation to the hub plate. You’ll see why this is important.

 

Four stands sitting on concrete floor.
Four almost fully assembled stands – check.

The last step is to install the ball transfers and the stopper feet. Ball, what, you say?

17 comments

  1. palate / palette / pallet. Your “palate” is the roof of your mouth, and by extension, your sense of taste. A “palette” is the flat board an artist mixes paint on (or by extension, a range of colors). A “pallet” is either a bed (now rare) or a flat platform onto which goods are loaded.May 30, 2016

    palate / palette / pallet | Common Errors in English Usage and …
    brians.wsu.edu › 2016/05/30 › palate-palette-pallet
    loaded

    1. It’s funny – I looked at the spelling several times and was questioning it in my mind and didn’t bother to look it up. Thanks – I will go fix it 🙂

      1. A fantastic article overall, too many years doing newspaper and yearbook edits make me notice things like that. Can’t wait to see the car driven in anger.

    1. @mike it’s frustrating at first but now that I am learning how to do everything it’s becoming more enjoyable. Especially now that it’s all dialed in. I have probably re-done the same thing three or four times, and I probably have a few more re-dos still to go.

  2. Very impressive set-up. A question regarding the weight in the driver’s seat: for when you are corner weighing the vehicle, why not put some weight on the floor where your feet will be? You are clearly going to great lengths to maximize a lot of the systems on this car, so why not go this extra mile? Put a bathroom scale on the floor as far forward as the pedals/bulkhead will allow, sit in your normal driving position and read the scale to determine how much of your weight is not on your seat. Then, you can put some weight on the floor and put the rest in the seat. Necessary? No, but it’s more accurate than putting all of the weight in the seat. Just a suggestion.

    1. @banfstc you are correct. I had sent that picture to a buddy who does drag car chassis set up (Menscer Motorsports) and he more or less immediately made the same comment. Since that photo I have been putting one of the 45# plates on the floor just in front of the seat. Ideally I need to get additional small weights to do as you suggest — “lay” my weight out more realistically where it goes. That being said, my guess is that my feet by the pedals weigh on the order of 20# at most as I sit pretty deep in the seat. I’d be curious to see what moving 20# from the seat to the pedal box area will do to the corner weights. At some point I’ll report back on that for sure!

  3. Only half kidding. I am local and setting up my Lotus Esprit for track day fun. Adding lots of adjust ability to the suspension.

    Would you let me come by and guide me while I corner weight and align the car with your awesome gear?

    Happy to pay for the privilege. I realize it would probably take much of a day and it is a big ask.

    1. If you use Facebook, send me a message. Happy to talk about it. One requirement is that your car needs to be 5-lug. If it’s not, it won’t work (I only have the 5-lug plate). If you don’t use Facebook you can email me using my full name (Erik M Jacobs) to Gmail

  4. I’m always so confused by the enormous amount of time and money spent on this car. At this point, you’ve spent so much money on everything from overkill wiring to now pro-level alignment gear, you could have just bought a better starting point that didn’t need all this work. You’d also have more time behind the wheel where most of your lap time will come from. It’s a very thorough and impressive build, but it just doesn’t seem like the wisest route to a lap time.

    1. @hayes
      The journey is not about the destination.

      I could have bought an MX5 global cup car. I could have bought a used TA2. I could’ve bought a used Porsche or sorted PCA or other race car. This is a horrifically expensive build.

      Why? Why not?

      I wouldn’t have learned anything about wiring, fabrication, or building cars. I wouldn’t have had any of the experiences I’ve had in the building of it.

      Realizing your dream isn’t always about the end result. Sometimes it’s about the things that go into realizing the dream. Sometimes the dream itself loses its importance along the way, and it becomes all about the way and not the dream.

      If I had a dollar for every time I wanted to set this car on fire and give up, I’d have lots of dollars. You don’t see the heartbreak or the misery parts on MotoIQ. You get the happy bits at the end of figuring it out. Sometimes you see the un-fun things, but it would be really quite boring.

      I’m not much for the whole #builtnotbought movement, but there’s something to it. I often wish I could just send the car somewhere, stroke a check, and have it be a GT4-like end product.

      But that’s not what’s happened. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

    1. @nikita yeah it would be nearly impossible to get the lugs lined up so that the hub stands would both be vertical. You definitely need a diff that has SOME level of independent movement, or you would need to come up with an alternate mounting stand where you could attach something to the hub and then be able to rotate the actual stand to be in the proper orientation. It would be….. hard.

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