Soooo... I took it to the local shop that does alignments. I told the guy behind the counter the history and what I was trying to accomplish, starting with evening out the tie rods and going on from there. I provided a bulleted page of information including a note to disregard the factory specifications and use specifications I provided from the skoche chart, iplus instructions for the procedure in case needed, and a second page with the skoche chart blown up to fit the whole sheet of paper. Both sheets of paper had targets highlighted. I asked them to have the tech call me if he had any questions after looking at the material.
They called me back at the end of the day to report all work done and ready for pickup. So I get there and ask for a printout of where they ended up, and, very proud of their work, they produced one. They were happy to point out that they had been able to get the car very close to ..... original factory specifications.
I asked whether that was the best they had been able to get to the target numbers I had provided (the "before" or "start" position on the printout was much closer -- they went the opposite way). They patiently explained to me how very close they had been able to get to "the black dot" which was their target, and didn't I want my car to steer correctly? So I asked where they got their target number and they said "the computer." So I asked why they didn't use the numbers I supplied and they said something about accelerated tire wear -- to which I explained that these cars get at best a thousand miles a year on them, and the tire will fail due to age deterioration long before wear, and in any event, that's not what I asked for. Turns out, of course, that the tech never looked at my written instructions, and did what he wanted to do. So they graciously agreed to run it through the process again on Monday.
The more aggravating part is the extent they went to to convince me of how well they had done the job.
I should have made two copies of the instructions -- one for the front office, and taped the second set to the steering wheel. My son said the problem was that I gave them too much information: if it had a staple in it, it was going to be disregarded.
And when I got home, I noticed that the driver side tie rod was still about 3/4' longer than the passenger side, and the now the steering wheel isn't centered....