3 days until first start.

some good news and some bad news. I guess I'll start with the bad.

The reputable welder I found in the area wasn't able to completely fix my radiator leak (a full report on the whole journey coming soon) so I'll have to purchase a new one. He tried chasing down the gap but the radiator channels are just so thin that it's extremely difficult to do. I went to go pick it up this morning, but of course, I forgot my wallet. Had to leave him with apologies and that I'll come back to get it next week. Ugh, what a bummer. Regardless, I had a radiator ordered from FFR and it's arriving soon. I'll still be able to fire up the engine. It will just be radiatorless for one more week after that.

After putting on my rear wheels I realized that my driver-side toe-arm's chasses mounting end is a little loose. Upon a close look it appears that the spacers weren't enough to tightly hold the rod-end in place. I'm gonna have to take that part off and add in another washer. It's a PITA to do, but at least I have a solid plan. Once again, just takes time.

The good news is that my car is now roughly aligned. I decided to learn the good'ol string alignment method. Went to ACE hardware, bought two 6ft wood beams and some fishing line. Had a friend over each with a caliper in our hands and we were off. The setup didn't take long at all. It's pretty amazing how simple it really is.
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I decided to do my alignment using my brake rotors instead of the wheels because that way I can adjust the upper control arm and toe-arms without swapping the wheel on and off every time. I secured the rotor to the hubs using lug nuts and a few thick washers. It did the trick.

Before this I had it "setup" by eyeballing and boy was I off! In the picture below you can see just how far off my driver side thrust angle was:
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Yikes!

As this is by no means a "final alignment", the specs I went with were quite straightforward. 0 degree camber and toe in the rear. 1/16in total toe-in in the front with FFR suggested UCA specs for power-steered setups. Should be good enough for go-karting.