About 6 months ago I picked up a nice 1987 300D that needed a little attention. Since then, I've been working to bring it back up to where it should be. Sorted out some vacuum issues, (mostly) fixed an issue with running hot, got rid of some electrical gremlins, and so on. Next up on my list - getting the car aligned. I prefer to do most things myself, but took it to a shop for this job.

So, after they've had it up on the rack for about half an hour, the SA tells me that I'll need to come back later in the week. They were getting close to closing time, and he said that the tech would need 2-3 hours to do the alignment (after he had already been working on it for half an hour!). Apparently the tech said something about a bunch of things needing to be removed to get to the adjustment points.

I'm confused. Since the underbody cladding only has about 4 simple bolts for the engine section, what on earth could he be talking about?! I'm a little worried about taking it back to them. How long should an alignment take? What could the tech need to remove to do the adjustment?