I lied about it from time to time throughout last season… I’m not even sure I told you guys the truth here? I’ve been running 5.5 degrees negative camber… and not really because I wanted it. It’s true that I am a big fan of camber thrust, and narrow balloon tires can take a lot of negative camber, but 5.5 degrees seems like a lot, and that’s as POSITIVE as my adjustment went. NOT ANYMORE.
This was actually a last resort. I spent a decent enough time shopping around to see if anyone made a plate that offered a range of adjustment that took full advantage of the available space in the strut tower. I found that some certainly offered more adjustment than others, but that the Tein plates I had were already as good as any. Out came the tools. You can see, I added about 20mm of adjustment in the positive direction.
After welding reinforcements on the car, my fear of destroying things is entirely gone. I’m not sure that’s a good thing… but I will say, I’ve been lacking the balls to do a lot of things to my car. They’re big and fat now. I’ll tell you later how that actually got me in some trouble and cost me some money… at this point though, I wondered if I’d screwed up again and would be buying new plates.
But look at that. They cleaned up nice and smooth. All that with a curved hand file. I do have a pneumatic dremel that just chews through aluminum, but in the end I found my hands too hard and stiff to create a smooth curve with it. Start to finish took me about 3 hrs. …looking forward to 4 degrees negative camber in 2011? Ha.
Bravo.
Say, do you have a drill press by now? Those holes seem awfully straight down. I might need the use of someone with a drill press.
Randy <-sucks at drilling straight down by hand.
hmmm… well I am just drilling through 1/4″ plate. Even if I am wildly crooked it’s hard to tell. I don’t have a drill press. In fact, my grandpa gave me my drill… I think maybe he got it before he went off to war. It’s GE, and is from the 60’s at best. He also gave me my favorite tool ever… which is an angle grinder of similar vintage.
Well I do align my car with bits of string, a tape measure, and with lines that I draw on the floor with the eyeliner I have leftover from the weekends I dress in drag… so i thought I’d spoil myself a bit by going all machiney and stuff.