Need to make some toe plates...Ideas?

I will probably just make something like the longacre plates from some washing machine sheet metal...but I need a low buck solution to set the toe before 4pm tonight. I don't have any free cash at the moment so I need a quick cheap solution for setting toe, any ideas? What does everyone else do for toe?

Anything flat and rigid. I use a 4 foot level on one side with a bungee cord through the wheel to keep it tight. The sweet thing is that the level is easy to keep level. Two levels would work great if you have them.

I think I only have one smaller level but a bungee cord... Hmmm that opens up all kinds of possibilities

Your avatar picture is horrifying!

I used a couple of sheet metal card file boxes set on the ground and pushed up against the tire when I needed to do a quick and dirty alignment for a trip. It actually worked fine and of all the things I had to complain about on that miserable car the alignment was not one of them.

It was kind of like this but bigger:

You probably won't have those lying around but the point is anything with a square flat edge that's long enough works well.

Hold a yard stick against the outside of the tire, use a level to ensure you're not going to measure a compound angle.

Duct tape the yard stick to the tire, measure front left to front right; rear left to rear right.

Ya just gotta be smarter than the machine ....

I use two levels, each two feet long. There are short slots cut in each end and I can hook my tape measure in the slots and measure the toe all by myself. they're held on the wheels with bungees ,or some J-hooks I made from some eyebolts I had laying around.

I use 3/16 steel plates that are 8" x 21" so they come up to approx mid wheel height and cover the span. Just lean them against the tires so it spans front to back. I like this better than yard sticks because I can roll the car back and forth to settle after an adjustment. I do use two pieces of sheet sandwiching grease as "turnplates" so rolling might not be necessary. I just always do it after dropping the jack.

2 sections of angle iron and 4 paint cans?

A single tape measure. Pick a circumferential groove on the tire and measure. Voila.

dculberson wrote: Your avatar picture is horrifying! I used a couple of sheet metal card file boxes set on the ground and pushed up against the tire when I needed to do a quick and dirty alignment for a trip. It actually worked fine and of all the things I had to complain about on that miserable car the alignment was not one of them. It was kind of like this but bigger: You probably won't have those lying around but the point is anything with a square flat edge that's long enough works well.

I found the avatar while searching toe plates and had to share

I actually do have something like that file thing accept double wide and full of papers and stuff I didn't want to have to reorganize.

Thanks Y'all for the great ideas I made my deadline and on budget (or lack there of)! I ended up using a piece of angle aluminum with bungee cord and tape to hold the tape measure on. And on the other side a level and a bungee cord. I put each wheel on two floor tiles with some grease sandwiched in-between. The tiles didn't hold up so well but they got the job done and were extra any ways.

Keith wrote: A single tape measure. Pick a circumferential groove on the tire and measure. Voila.

I used to do it this way by spinning the tire and drawing a thin line with a yellow grease stick to measure to. I think the plates are easier to be consistent with because you can pull the tape tight against them.

two cheap ass cutting board from kichen store. Stack and clamp togather then use skil saw to knotch them so tape measure can fit in. Do front and back. Done

oh if you intend to do it by yourself drill two 1 inch holes near the center so you can pass a bungy cord thru the board and around wheel spokes to hold one plate to the side wall.

In the past: two pieces of 1" aluminum angle from LowesDepot and some of those small bungee cords. Bungee them to the wheels at the same height on both sides, use a torpedo level to get them horizontal, measure to heart's content.

Oh, and make sure the floor is level. If it's not level, use squares of Masonite to level the car. As long as you are leveling the car that way: if you put a 1" blob of grease on the shiny side of a Masonite square then put another shiny side against that, you have just made turn plates.

Yeah, I'm cheap.

Yep, two foot-square-ish sheets of metal, put a bit of grease in the middle, and you've made your toe plates.

Or a couple of vinyl floor tiles and some sand or rice to avoid getting grease on stuff that shouldn't have grease on it.

FYI, this might give you some ideas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZoL1gaWedA

Keith wrote: A single tape measure. Pick a circumferential groove on the tire and measure. Voila.

I do something similar to this, but since I don't usually have anyone to help hold the tape measure to one side, I picked up two cheap adjustable flat curtain rods. One in front of the wheel and one behind. Once they are aligned to the same groove, I lock them to their current length with a pair of vise grips, then pull them out from under the car, and measure the difference.

Keith wrote: A single tape measure. Pick a circumferential groove on the tire and measure. Voila.

Second that. Might get a friend to hold the tape on the other end.

It's past 4PM Eastern time but one more thing: when marking the tires it's easy to get the line off when using a grease pencil, etc. That's why there are those tire scribers: It scribes a razor cut around the tire so you can get a really accurate measurement. There's no reason this couldn't be repllicated with a couple pars of Vise Grips and a razor blade, or an Xacto knife.

Personally, I use a set of toe plates. They're super-simple to duplicate using basic tools. The single tape measure was the most minimal version I could think of since it seemed that too flat plates and a pair of tape measures was too hard ;)