I have a comment on the Ferdinand Logo. The flower looks different than the truck. The flower could be a side profile so the truck and the flower look like they are 'looking' at each other rather than a flower next to the truck. Like have the flower have more of an out stretched look to meet Ferdinand as to each smell each other.
+1 on some XXL.....Please send a link or some way to send some money. I absolutely have no problem supporting such an awesome dude.
Your writing is so good I can even talk to my wife about it and she laughs....that is a special skill to cross the "non gearhead line" and have them interested in the work as well....
Since we're piling on about your cartoon sticker:
It might be more compelling if it were a 3/4 front view of the truck which would :
1. Show the most appealing side of the truck .
2. Allow a cross eyed headlight feature.
This is my list as of 7:30 this morning. I'll add to it this afternoon. I think I'm going to set Friday afternoon as the soft cutoff for shirts. At that point I'll make sure I order a bit more than I need to cover everyone who has asked for a shirt with a few extras for stragglers. 
As far as the design, "I'm an engineer not an artist dammit!" 
The reality is that making shirts with iron on transfers cut on a cheap vinyl cutter is a bit laborious. The design is simple on purpose and I actually spent a bunch of time working with the outline to make sure it was instantly recognizable and easy to cut and work with. I'll go over the whole process when I make the shirts so you guys can see what goes into it.
I'm not charging for these. I know some of you want to throw me some money, and I appreciate that, but a little backstory. I grew up in West Michigan, home of Amway and 100 other MLM schemes. I watched people try and sell crap to their friends and family and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Combine that with what we have here at the GRM message boards, the clubhouse feel of the place. Hanging out at someone else's clubhouse and trying to make money while you're there just feels wrong. I may suggest a charity if you feel uncomfortable holding money, or there is always Challenge beer that needs to be bought. Rather than give me money, take it and make the world better in a small way. Honestly if you can wear the shirt and it makes you smile, that's enough. Oh, and there tires are 38 inches tall, so you can use that to scale the flower. 
With the serious stuff out of the way, I do not have a 2 5/8 inch socket. I'm going to check at Harbor Freight this afternoon for something big enough that won't leave the center cap looking like a shark chewed on it. 
Im a technical ludite, can i just mail you cash for a shirt? Ill try to get a paypal set up by friday. Id be a 2xl.
Ill take an XL :D
But I really would like to pay for it! Seriously, we can all at least cover the costs, sounds rather labor intensive....
Think of it as us all chipping in a bit for build parts for Ferdinand if nothing else.
Ok, maybe I wasn't clear enough, you can't send me shirt money. My work policy over the last couple of years has been this: I'm doing work because I want to. I like to. You can pay me if you want, but if you do, I won't work for you again. I'm going to extend that to shirts. You're welcome to send me money, but if you do I'm putting you on a list and you're banned from getting future shirts.
We cool?
In reply to mazdeuce :
You sir, are a class act. If there is still room on the list, I'd be proud to wear one. XL.
As for the design, I think it's awesome, besides, anyone who can wrestle that AMG unicorn into submission will probably produce an awesome shirt!!
Actual work today involved the electric impact. I still prefer wrenches, but in order to get this slightly rusty stuff off I'd have to use PB Blaster and then I'd have to clean that off in order to paint. If I just hammer them off I save myself some cleaning.
The idea is to pull everything from the cab support back right now. That means pulling the fuel tank which makes me sad. It's a fabulous coffee table.
A lot of the electrical connectors are in good shape. The one running to the back of the truck is not. Going to need to replace that. 
I also noticed that the rear U bolts are getting on the thin side. Need to add those to my list. They're down to about 1/2 thickness. 
One last thing before I wire wheel the frame, this. I think it says "DO NOT DRILL HOLES IN FRAME ......" and then FLANGES maybe? I should count the holes in the flanges. 
And then out comes the four inch grinder with a knotted wire wheel. I don't like to use this on sheet metal because I think it's too agressive, but is works great here. I'm shocked at how much paint is under the rust. Weird. 
I love how there's a hole drilled right through "NOT"!
Careful with the wire wheel. Just had one catch an edge of my glove. Shredded the glove and pulled my wrist into the spinning wire wheel. Stings a little.
I imagined some guy reading that, brrrrrrrrrrrr, hole, LOL. It's also about a foot away from the place where they cut three feet out of the frame and stitched it back together. It's fine.
Yup. I noticed the weld in the last photo. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. The stretch those things all the time.
Picked up a buddy who was dropping his KW off to get stretched for a sleeper. The shop had several tractors in various stages from "cut in half" to almost completed.
In reply to mazdeuce :
Like mikedd9696 said you are a class act. Don't know if you saw it today but a 2012 v wagon 6sp sold on BaT for $53k with 41k miles, damn.
I was actually in Amway for a short time, and I totally get it. I will donate money to the Harvey relief effort, and I encourage all of you who ordered shirts to donate to it too, or perhaps to the Irma relief effort, if need be. ( I hope to god not though.)
mazdeuce said:In reply to Gentabout:
Tell you what, give me your size and I'll make you a shirt. If shipping ends up silly, I have a plan. My sister lives in Belgium and I'll see her at Christmas. I'll pass her the shirt and your address, she'll act as an international t-shirt mule, and mail it to you from Ghent. What could to wrong?
Don't suppose I could get in on this deal as well, could I? I'd love an XXL.
Your stuff is currently my favourite thing on the internet. Would you be willing to let us know your preferred charity so we can inspire others with hope the way you inspire us?
I didn't see my name on the shirt list... ;-)
oldtin said:Careful with the wire wheel. Just had one catch an edge of my glove. Shredded the glove and pulled my wrist into the spinning wire wheel. Stings a little.
I have mixed feelings about using gloves with wire wheels for this reason. The only thing that sucks more than getting bitten by a wire wheel is getting something sucked into a wire wheel. I generally work gloveless.
honda1 said:In reply to mazdeuce :
Like mikedd9696 said you are a class act. Don't know if you saw it today but a 2012 v wagon 6sp sold on BaT for $53k with 41k miles, damn.
I did not see that, but holy crap.
I keep saying that as soon as the V wagon is worth as much as I paid (and mine has 26K miles) then I'll offer it up for sale. Only $10k more to go!
If you're name isn't on the shirt list then it's only because I haven't put it on yet. I'll go through everything again tonight, and then tomorrow, and then Friday and I'll get you all, plus extras in case I miss someone, and then I'll PM everyone once I start making them to get addresses and the......crimeny, this feels like a job.
To people in Europe or elsewhere. We'll check postage, smuggling through Belgium, and any other options. We'll make it work. I have a dream of a Think Twice Wrench Once sticker making laps around the racetracks of Europe, we can do this.
corybrown50 said:+1 on some XXL.....Please send a link or some way to send some money. I absolutely have no problem supporting such an awesome dude.
Your writing is so good I can even talk to my wife about it and she laughs....that is a special skill to cross the "non gearhead line" and have them interested in the work as well....
I'm going to interpret this as "Mazdeuce is funny" which I will be sure to point out to my wife and kids. I'm funny dammit, the internet says so!
Yeah....funny haha....I'll say it is you and not that she is laughing at me.... I have 2 kids as well, definitely feel free to use me as a reason for anything....."because I said so" gets old after a while.
Mazdeuce, I'd like an XL shirt too please, and since you've stated quite clearly that I shouldn't ask to send money to you, I'll instead donate it to the Red Cross Hurricane Harvey relief fund.
Love the build, following along daily. 
I've been following you since the beginning of the Mercedes repair you sir are at least a mechanical hero!! (though you probably are just a person who does this just to prove you can)
CUDO's to you and your very tolerant wife and kids!!!
Please put me down for a 2xl shirt!
P.S. since you told us not to pay I'll just continue to donate to Harvey relief
I hat to wait 24 hours to ask for this and finally comment I've been lurking for way too long
Sign me up for a 2XL and I'll figure out way to donate to the relief funds
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