chassis alignment, camber/caster/toe angles

Photos 1 and 2
It's time to bolt the bigger body sections to the chassis but first I had to do some prep work like make sure the chassis and suspension are square (It would be a lot more difficult with the full body in place). One very important part of that was to make sure that the detachable rear sub-frame, which carries the differential, rear brakes and rear suspension was perfectly aligned with the center-line of the car.

The first step was to measure between the pick-up points of the front and rear suspension systems to find the exact center-line of the car. I had already done a lot of the preliminary work to establish the center-line while building the chassis. Plum-bobs were hung from the front and rear center points of the chassis and a string was stretched along the shop floor directly under the points of those 2 plum-bobs, establishing the chassis center-line just above the floor.

When the chassis was built, I made up 2 detachable lateral bars, with adjustable ends, that attach to the front and rear of the chassis. A String was run along each side of the car, between the afore mentioned removable bars. These 2 strings were adjusted to be parallel with each other and the center-line string via a plumb-bob at each bar end (each corner) to form a perfect box which was aligned with the chassis. Measurements were made from the string sides of the box and adjustments were made to the rear sub-frame and suspension to make it all nice and square to hopefully eliminate a lot of potential handling problems.

Photo 3
I also set the camber, caster and toe angles. The Quattroporte (Jaguar style) rear suspension uses the half-shafts as the upper control arms. Camber is adjusted by stacking shims behind the inboard U-joints. I still need to adjust bump-steer.

Photo 4
I got a little ahead of myself when I made the roll-bar braces earlier and forgot that I still needed to adjust the rear sub-frame, which the braces anchor to. After adjusting the sub-frame I had to cut the braces apart, cut new bolt eye tubes for the ends and prep the joints for re-welding.