Tight workspace setup approaches

First of all, I've really enjoyed the course. I had a pretty good understanding of many of the topics coming into this, but having everything gone over end-to-end in the course has been a huge boon. Thanks for this!

So I'll be setting up in my home garage, which is relatively tight. It's a 2 bay garage, but of course things are not perfectly level, and removing/setting up the strings each time I have to lift the car (which is necessary to make adjustments in my case) is not the ideal setup.

I've seen situations where people will simply make use of some 2x4s to create wheel stands to have the car elevated enough to get under it for adjustments. On top of that would be a lip to keep the car from sliding off while setting on top of a couple pieces of steel plates/lubrication as slip plates as the course suggests.

This GRM video on DIY string alignment is effectively what I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T2Ku5ibUz0

If I were to keep the car on top of the slip plates and stands, make adjustments, and keep my string lines setup (at the proper height etc), is this a decent small workspace setup?

Primarily I plan to start with the aluminum extrusion and jackstand style setup vs the SmartStrings on-car setup.

What I'm primarily trying to avoid is the requirement tear down the string setup, jack up the car, make an adjustment, resettle the car, and reset my string setup, especially as space is limited for rolling the car around.

Any suggestions or guidance would be appreciated! My goal is to reduce the amount of time I'm spending doing setup vs adjustment/measuring.

Thanks!

Leif.

Hey Leif, glad you enjoyed the course :) welcome to the team.

Yeh, I understand the string method can be a little fiddly at times, especially in an enclosed area.

Silly question, can you not get the jack under the car without having to move the strings? Or does the problem come from access to the car to make the changes? Unfortunately, with this style of alignment it can be more time consuming. Having the car raised up can massively help, just need to make sure the platforms are all level to each other and are flat. 'EZ Strings' or 'Smart Strings' are the way to go!

In theory, if you're using slip plates, then the need to roll the car forwards and backwards is much less important, and you can usually get any error out of the car by bouncing it up and down.

Matt

Hey Matt,

Unfortunately on my platform (2008 Mazdaspeed3) the front jack points are either the pinch welds on the sides forward of the rear tires / aft of the front tires, or the front sub assembly which is at least a meter back of the front nose, so centre jacking the car is nearly impossible. Having gone through the process in my head, I already can't be bothered to deal with the jack stands method, so a floating string assembly is on its way (SmartStrings).

I've been rearranging the garage the last couple of days in preparation to install a storage loft and getting things ready for when the car comes home in the spring, and since I'll need to lift the corners of the car to level the ground, I expect I'll setup some slip plates and use that approach. Leveling the car off the ground even 20-30cm at the most drastic side should give enough space to slide the jack back to the centre jacking point on the front sub assembly, and expect that'll be how I end up ultimately accessing everything.

Thanks!

Leif.

Sorry to be late to the party, but I was also thinking the same thing in regards to avoiding jacking the car up and down to make changes. However, in my googling it seems no one really makes affordable wheel stands that have level adjustment and can facilitate slip plates. It looks like intercomp make a set of levelling wheel stands for about $2000USD which is far outside the budget. I've seen the 2x4 method as well but then of course there is the issue of making sure they are all level. I'm willing to spend the money on the BG racing string kit, caster camber gauge etc but it seems to become very expensive when you want a solution that avoids jacking the car up and down every time you want to make a change. Has anyone come up with an affordable solution?