Frame alignment decides how a vehicle handles and how evenly it wears tires. At our auto body shop it gets measured on computerized equipment rather than assessed by eye.

Measuring against the factory numbers

The vehicle is anchored and reference points across the underbody are compared with the manufacturer's dimensional data, producing deviations in millimeters at every control point.

That distinction matters because a vehicle can close its doors, drive acceptably across town, and still sit outside tolerance. On the open stretches out here, where you might hold seventy for an hour at a time, small structural errors turn into tire wear and a car that never quite tracks straight.

Correcting it

Controlled pulls where the metal allows, with readings retaken between each one until the structure falls inside specification. Replacement where the manufacturer designates a section replace-only, which is common on high strength and boron components because heating them to reshape destroys the crash behavior they were engineered for.

Tire wear is the tell

If tires started scrubbing on one edge after an impact, or the steering wheel sits off center on a straight road, the structure is the first thing to check rather than the alignment rack. Aligning a vehicle whose structure is out simply moves the problem.

Cars and trucks both

Unibody cars and body-on-frame pickups get different approaches. Heavy trucks too, where a frame out of line costs money in tires continuously.

Documentation

Before and after readings go on paper and stay with the vehicle.

Get it measured

Call (605) 494-0436, particularly after any impact that deployed an airbag.