Rep Power: 424

OK, basically this is the deal. I'm re-aligning the front end... but I'm down at school so I don't trust any of the shops around here. So fortunately/unfortunately, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to let the dealer do it (they haven't messed up my car yet). BUT... rather than let them rape me on adjusting everything, I want to bring it to them in the "almost set" state. Basically, I can do the camber myself with the camber plates, and I'm pretty sure I can re-adjust the toe close enough to 0 to get to the dealer and get it zeroed out. My question is... to adjust the tie rods... you just loosen the nut and turn the tie rod longer until you reset the toe to somewhat 0 then re-lock it right? I'm just going to do it with chalk lines... I only need to go about 5 miles, wearing tires isn't my concern... not paying more than $60 is.
What I'm doing is swapping camber bolts for stock bolts because the camber bolts moved on me. I know that the most positive I can get is -1.5 so I'm just going for that with an approximated 0 toe to make it to the dealer... then let them laser the toe 0.
This works in theory right?

 
Rep Power: 310

Yeah you just loosen the jamb nuts on the tie rod ends and then turn the tie rod until you get close to 0 then lock it down. Is it that off that you cant make it five miles?

 
Rep Power: 424

Its not that its "off"... its that I'm transfering all the camber correction from the knuckle to the camber plate. There's probably a good 2.5 degrees of correction on the knuckle right now to get them set right, so I'm going to reset the knuckle to 0 again with the stock crash bolts (with the plates where they are now, it'll be over -5 deg.), then push the plates positive to re-adjust. Because of the tie-rod location, camber adjustments with the plate severely effect toe, which will give me so much toe out, I won't be able to drive the car.

 
Rep Power: 0

Camber adjustment should be included in the price of the alignment unless parts have to be installed. Thats the way it has been at the shops I have worked at.