Hello. I'm having troubles with the alignment on my '65 convertible. When I restored the car I had the body shop drill the new holes in the shock towers. I made a template that I copied out of a Mustang catalog. I put in new lower control arms, rebuilt the uppers & added new 1" lower springs. The tires are Goodyear Eagle GT II (205/70R14) on 1965 Styled Steel wheels.
Now the problem. When you look at the passenger side wheel it fits pefectly in the well.
When you look at the drivers side wheel it is almost rubbing on the lower front part of the fender. It has about half an inch to spare. When I go around a corner to the right the tire rubs on the upper front part of the wheel well lip. I don't know what to do.
I took it for an alignment. They said it was "PERFECT". They said it was one of the straightest 40 year old cars they'd ever seen.
I put it up on stands. Made sure it was as level as I could get it & humg plumb bobs off the frame in 12 different positions. From the front left to right rear it was a difference of 3mm over 2950mm when compared to front right & left rear measurements.
I'm at a loss!!!!!!
I know the fenders were replaced by the previous owner but I've owned the car since 1986. Could the drivers side be out that much?? I never noticed it before the restoration.
The new holes for the upper control arms appear to be down & aft, but I'd need to dismantle the whole front end to tell for sure. It's almost August! I want to drive the thing before it needs to be put into hibernation again.
Could I have goofed something up when I rebuilt the upper control arms??
What would happen if I added alignment shims to the forward side of the control arm?? Would this not cause the whole wheel to move aft?? ................It wouldn't take many. Surely this could be compensated for.
I live in Canada so it'll snow here by the middle of October.
Any help will be GREATLY appreciated!
Take care.
Andrew

 

remember how old the car is and if worse comes to worse re-drill the holes for the upper control arms on the side that is too low...maybe bring it up a half inch instead of going down the full inch...then take it in and have it aligned...

 

Let me surmise to make sure I've got this correct.

1). you rebuilt the upper control arms (UCA's) and did the shelby drop 1" down 1/8" to the rear.
2). replaced lower control arms (LCA's)
3). added 1" lower springs.

Any chance when you threaded the UCA mounting rod back in that it is not centered? If it is off to the front it could throw the upper control arm forward, and I think to get Castor correctly compensated it would take more shims in the forward bolt. This would push the wheel forward and out. Did you do anything with the strut rods??? that could pull the wheel forward and definately need compensation for Castor as well.

If everything is straight you should have about 1/2" of shims fairly even front and rear with somewhere between 1/2 and 1 degree of negative camber.

Do you have your alignment specs from the shop that you could post? Also compare the right and left side shim stack. There should be an obvious difference somewhere here, but it may be a cumulative deal (like what I stated in the above paragraph).

I'm Very interested to hear what you've got.

 

Thanks for the reply. I think I'm going to pull the whole thing apart tomorrow. I remember putting the upper control arm back together thinking ".....................I hope this is right". If that's it, it'll have been a learning experiance. I really don't want to fork out the money for adjustable uppers.
I'll update this post when I get it figured.
Andrew