Good stuff! I designed and built my own string alignment kit (I documented it on my youtube page) and use hub stands to do alignments at home on my car and a few friends cars and it's worked great! I'd say my setup process is about 95% the same. The only thing I haven't done is ensuring the bars are perpendicular to the chassis.
Thanks for this video Matt. I found it very informative in understanding some basics and also what you did with all that kit on my M3 F80 at Brands GP track day. The car handles much better after your geo adjustment. Have been following your M3 F80 project with keen interest to decide what upgrades to go for as the suspension is now the limiting factor after the Litchfield stage 1 and Alcon BBK upgrade. Mark
Hi Mark, glad you’re enjoying the content and the setup on the F80 M3. That’s great 👍 our next step with the F80 is to begin installing the upgrades now we have the base laps around Oulton in the dry at long last! If you need any advice in the mean time feel free to drop us a message, email or call 👍
Perhaps a lightweight ceiling droppable frame, prebuilt squared and levelled with unistrut or similar, with slidable rail for swappable cone(s) on squared off studding to the hubs, and/or adjustable legs at the corners for a prelevelled floor area ? Just thinking of a way to shave off a tonne of setup time, if the frame is already mostly setup, or really quick/simple to make the relevant changes. Perhaps self levelling legs if the floor is also prelevelled, to save levelling all four corners for different rim center heights. Perhaps spring loaded hub rods, to autocenter the frame.
Great video! One question: what if the car has a different diameter of wheel in the front and back? Should you calibrate the string kit twice, so once for measuring each axle?
No need to setup the kit twice. You just need to keep in mind the larger diameter and set the toe accordingly. For the same angle a larger wheel will need slightly more mm of toe than a smaller wheel 👍
Great video. What is your opinion of using hub stands to do this? I have used both methods and think the hub stands are much quicker plus giving you access to the adjusters.
Hub stands are also great, especially if working low to the ground then access becomes much easier. For us with the two post ramps and the mid height trays for the car to sit upon its quicker for us to leave the wheels on and just as accurate as we can access the vast majority of adjustment from below the car whilst it sits on the trays.
Thanks for the comment. It would certainly be quicker but we think less accurate. One of the issues with laser alignment machines is the calibration of the equipment that can be knocked and affected if not kept on top of rigorously. Therefore, the numbers read aren’t always the actual numbers present. Whereas with the string and line kit, the kit must be calibrated to the car every time it is used, ensuring the numbers read are perfectly accurate every time 👍 this is the main reason we don’t use lasers and why many top tiers of motorsport still use string lines 🙌
Also cheaper for a string kit. Even cheap 4 wheel laser alignment kit is over £1k, plus the rig to calibrate even more. Even second hand kits are not cheap, Hoffman and super tracker etc, plus again will need calibrating. Also like with string kit that you can center the box from subframe mounts etc and not just wheel centers, the 4 wheel laser alignment kits have flags you hang on tyre face, but you align of the other axle which can be off. These kits explicitly state the rears have to be toed to the vehicle centerline which you have to find. With string you can do this easily.
Hi there can you answer this, I see a lot of places using this method but to get the car on those “stilts” you need to lift the car then drop it onto those stilts. In my experience the suspension can take days to properly settle so surely the alignment you’ve done will change after the suspension fully settles in the coming days? Thanks
Yes of course. The suspension doesn't take days to settle especially if it is pre-installed suspension. if it is a fresh install you can take the car on a short drive to settle it further. We then sit the car on roll-on roll-off trays so we can settle the car manually between adjustments.
@@SuspensionSecrets Sorry if this is a dumb question but I am rather new to the concept of aligning my car on my own. To get the suspension to settle, do you just try to load the suspension by pushing down on the car and rolling the car forward and backward? I want to build a platform to get optimum access to adjusters but concerned about trying to align a car that is jacked up in the air and then having to somehow "settle" the car.
This is a great video. I'd like to try this in the future, but I know I'd be 2 hours into the job and I'd hit the pole at least once and need to recalibrate lol
Thanks! Knocking the poles can happen whilst working on the car but they are quite quick to reset after a knock once the kit has been calibrated the first time 👍
Good stuff! I designed and built my own string alignment kit (I documented it on my youtube page) and use hub stands to do alignments at home on my car and a few friends cars and it's worked great! I'd say my setup process is about 95% the same. The only thing I haven't done is ensuring the bars are perpendicular to the chassis.
Thanks for this video Matt. I found it very informative in understanding some basics and also what you did with all that kit on my M3 F80 at Brands GP track day. The car handles much better after your geo adjustment. Have been following your M3 F80 project with keen interest to decide what upgrades to go for as the suspension is now the limiting factor after the Litchfield stage 1 and Alcon BBK upgrade. Mark
Hi Mark, glad you’re enjoying the content and the setup on the F80 M3.
That’s great 👍 our next step with the F80 is to begin installing the upgrades now we have the base laps around Oulton in the dry at long last! If you need any advice in the mean time feel free to drop us a message, email or call 👍
An excellent, comprehensive tutorial. Bravo.
Proper content here! Great information 👍
Glad you’re enjoying it! Thanks 👍
Perhaps a lightweight ceiling droppable frame, prebuilt squared and levelled with unistrut or similar, with slidable rail for swappable cone(s) on squared off studding to the hubs, and/or adjustable legs at the corners for a prelevelled floor area ?
Just thinking of a way to shave off a tonne of setup time, if the frame is already mostly setup, or really quick/simple to make the relevant changes.
Perhaps self levelling legs if the floor is also prelevelled, to save levelling all four corners for different rim center heights.
Perhaps spring loaded hub rods, to autocenter the frame.
Great video! One question: what if the car has a different diameter of wheel in the front and back? Should you calibrate the string kit twice, so once for measuring each axle?
No need to setup the kit twice. You just need to keep in mind the larger diameter and set the toe accordingly. For the same angle a larger wheel will need slightly more mm of toe than a smaller wheel 👍
I found this really useful, thanks!
Awesome glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for useful content! Would be useful in the future.
Glad it was helpful! We look forward to bringing you more in the near future.
Great video. What is your opinion of using hub stands to do this? I have used both methods and think the hub stands are much quicker plus giving you access to the adjusters.
Hub stands are also great, especially if working low to the ground then access becomes much easier. For us with the two post ramps and the mid height trays for the car to sit upon its quicker for us to leave the wheels on and just as accurate as we can access the vast majority of adjustment from below the car whilst it sits on the trays.
Great content ! but wouldn't it be quicker and more accurate using a laser alignment machine ?
Thanks for the comment. It would certainly be quicker but we think less accurate. One of the issues with laser alignment machines is the calibration of the equipment that can be knocked and affected if not kept on top of rigorously. Therefore, the numbers read aren’t always the actual numbers present. Whereas with the string and line kit, the kit must be calibrated to the car every time it is used, ensuring the numbers read are perfectly accurate every time 👍 this is the main reason we don’t use lasers and why many top tiers of motorsport still use string lines 🙌
Also cheaper for a string kit. Even cheap 4 wheel laser alignment kit is over £1k, plus the rig to calibrate even more. Even second hand kits are not cheap, Hoffman and super tracker etc, plus again will need calibrating. Also like with string kit that you can center the box from subframe mounts etc and not just wheel centers, the 4 wheel laser alignment kits have flags you hang on tyre face, but you align of the other axle which can be off. These kits explicitly state the rears have to be toed to the vehicle centerline which you have to find. With string you can do this easily.
Hi there can you answer this, I see a lot of places using this method but to get the car on those “stilts” you need to lift the car then drop it onto those stilts. In my experience the suspension can take days to properly settle so surely the alignment you’ve done will change after the suspension fully settles in the coming days? Thanks
Yes of course. The suspension doesn't take days to settle especially if it is pre-installed suspension. if it is a fresh install you can take the car on a short drive to settle it further. We then sit the car on roll-on roll-off trays so we can settle the car manually between adjustments.
@@SuspensionSecrets Sorry if this is a dumb question but I am rather new to the concept of aligning my car on my own. To get the suspension to settle, do you just try to load the suspension by pushing down on the car and rolling the car forward and backward? I want to build a platform to get optimum access to adjusters but concerned about trying to align a car that is jacked up in the air and then having to somehow "settle" the car.
what tires are those they look so cool
I believe this car was running Dunlop Direzza tyres
Hi guys, bit of a random question but what 2 post lifts are you using and where did you get the 4 corner stands from?
Great, do you have the link to to purchase this kit?
We do indeed. Please find it here: shop.suspensionsecrets.co.uk/products/b-g-racing-string-lines-kit?_pos=1&_psq=bg+racing+string&_ss=e&_v=1.0
Where do I buy a alignment kit??
From us 😁
This is a great video. I'd like to try this in the future, but I know I'd be 2 hours into the job and I'd hit the pole at least once and need to recalibrate lol
Thanks! Knocking the poles can happen whilst working on the car but they are quite quick to reset after a knock once the kit has been calibrated the first time 👍