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Reply to "Wheel Alignment - Who do you trust to do it?"

Thought Bosswrench's comments were very informative, especially on front end "tire scrub".  My "74 Pantera is #6834, which I bought "brand new"., I  remember bringing  the car in for a front end alignment  and the tech spent over 2 hours on it trying to get over 0 degrees positive on the front left side, with all the shims on the front side.  I wasn't that knowledgable on Pantera front suspension quirks way back then,  but figured something wasn't quite right.

About  9 years ago, I had a spare left and right pair of upper "A" arms sent out to  and modified by Pat Michal for additional upper ball joint "back and forth" travel for additional caster adjustment and "in and out"  travel stops for camber adjustment.  That cost was about $900 with new bushings.  My car is a 1974 #6834, yellow in color,  I bought new from Fore River Motors in Quincy, Mass in March of 1975.   It still wears its original paint that looks great.  Sent the car to the alignment shop with new Coddington Campo aluminium epros by (Mario Perna in Florida)  front rims 10" x 17" with 245/40x17" front tires and 13" x 18" rear rims with 335/30-18" .  I forgot the exact rim offsets, but they were perfect with little room to spare for fender clearance on a stock bodied Pantera, but they fit like a glove.  Mario Perna did do his "homework" on this fitment.  The rear 18" rims were great as the allowed more offset by tucking the lower upright bottom inside the rim ID.  I don't know what the front tire "scrub" was , if any.  We ended up setting the front end caster to 4-1/2 degrees positive on both sides with camber and toe-in to factory settings.  Rear toe-in was correct factory setting after juggling shims for toe-in and camber.  Not sure if you still get these size and offset Campo repro aluminium  rims anymore.  Tightest clearance was tire wall to late 70's Mind Train exhaust mufflers with 2-1/2 system with headers.  Got pretty "busy" with all the rear end and exhaust modifications, but it works.  The car now drives great with great high speed (120 MPH plus) stability.  Steering is high on parking, but tolerable.  Once your moving its fine, and you do not need power steering.

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