Base suspension alignment/setup

[asgraff]

After months of rust repair, cleaning, undercoating, etc., I am finally starting to put my ‘71 Mach 1 back together. I purchased a stock suspension rebuild kit with new control arms, shocks, shock supports, bushings, etc. I have all the components installed but am at a loss on how to setup a base alignment/setup. I had the car completely tore down to the unibody, so I won’t be able to have a final alignment done until I have the engine/transmission back in the car, but I would like to setup the front end with a base alignment to allow me to roll it around until I get everything put back in the car and can properly load the suspension and do a real alignment. 

I have measurements, etc. from the old setup that would allow me to get the tie rods and strut rods back to where they were with the old suspension, but am wondering how to set my lower control arm lengths (with the cam bolts) to get me close enough to assemble the car and roll it around some. Anyone ever done this from scratch before? Any ideas how to proceed?

Thanks in advance!

[JTS71 Mach1]

Remembering My 71, the adjuster / cam bolts only had about a 1/2 inch movement total, so that isn't much as I remember. When there is no weight on the front end, and the springs are fully extended the wheels lean in at the top quite a bit. My guess would be to adjust the cam bolts to reduce the lean in at the top as much as possible. This will take some of the toe in out of things, and allow it to roll easier. if that's not enough you can adjust the tie rods and get it close to 0 toe in. Now when you add the engine, and trans you will have to undo most of what you did. To get it back near straight up and down with the weight on the suspension. The easy way to get close is take a flat piece of steel about 6 inches long, and using a magnetic angle finder, put it on the flat piece of steel and then lay it on the flat face of the wheel, and then measure the angle till you get as close to 0 degrees straight up. Then set the toe in with the tie rods and you should be in the ball park. There's a little more to it but that should get you close., and with everything being new the adjustments should be easy. Hope it helps. 

JTS