I have a set of Volk GT C rims. I have been to 3 places to get a wheel alignment and they all tell me their machine will clamp down on the rim and damage it if they do the alignment.

Are there certain wheel alignment machinces (heads) that won't damage the rims?

Another shop told me they could do a mechanical alignment but it will only be a two wheel alignment. So far this seems to be my best choice.

The car has lots of negative camber which is killing the tires. I would like to adjust this as much as possible to extend tire life.

Thanks for the help.

Dan

 

All the alignment machine heads that I have seen have metal claws that grab onto the lip of the rims, so yes they will most likely leave a mark. Your best bet is to put on the stockers and get it aligned then swap out the wheels, or just get over it and have it aligned with the volks.

 

Go to a good performance car alignment shop, not those hillbilly gas stations that are used to align buicks. A performance shop (race shop) is used to dealing with nice, expensive wheels, so they will have no problems not scratching the wheels.

 

I had my shop place painters (blue) tape where the hooks on the alignment machine mounts to the wheel. You can ask them to do that....

 

Or you can find an old school alignment shop that uses strings to do alignment

 

many shops understand the importance of being gentle with expensive wheels... simply avoid the average tire kingdom (although, I have used the one in my town several times with great luck. I made it a point to meet the shop guys and give a tip to the person doing the work. He used shop towels during the mounting of the tires, and blue painters tape during the alignment.)

It can be done with no damage to the wheels. It simply takes more time and more concentration on the part of the shop doing the work.

 

I've never had any issues. They put metal clamps on my ADVANs all the time. I've had the car aligned a few times for a few different setups.

I've never seen any scratches when I mount or dismount my tires. It's not a big deal unless the guy totally manhandles your wheels. There are cars with expensive finished wheels from the factory. If a shop was scratching every wheel on every car that came in for an alignment, they wouldn't be in business too long.

Your wheels will be fine. No worries. Just make sure you point it out and say it's important that the wheels don't get scratched before you get the work done. They will then mark down any existing wheel damage; you can agree to it, and then if they do scratch the wheels further, you can get compensated. It's not like your Volks are irreplaceable.

BTW, it's probably not the camber that's killing your tires. When you lower an S2000, the toe goes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY off. That's what's killing your tires.