Torque figures and the order you do them in

A table of fasteners with a figure against each. Beside it, a row of circles numbered in an order that spirals out from the middle.

That sequence is not a decoration. Do it in the wrong order and the head warps.

Why a torque table instead of a wrench and flames?

Because the table is what the job actually is.

Garage merchandise runs on crossed spanners, chequered flags, pistons with wings and jokes about labour rates. None of it says anything about the work. A torque sequence says: this is a trade with exact numbers in it, and getting them wrong destroys the thing you're fixing.

That's a much more flattering picture of a mechanic than a cartoon of one.

Why is the sequence the good part?

Because it's the piece of knowledge that separates people who know from people who don't.

Fasteners on a head go down in stages, from the centre outward, in a specified order, often in several passes at increasing figures. The diagram encodes decades of engineering into a numbered spiral, and it's genuinely elegant to look at.

A mechanic reads it and knows exactly what's being described. Everyone else sees a pattern of circles, which is the double reading this whole approach depends on.

Can it use a real manufacturer's figures?

The numbers are facts about a machine, but the manual they're printed in isn't.

Torque values themselves are engineering data. Workshop manuals are published works with their own layout, typography and diagrams, and manufacturers are protective of both those and their marks — a model name and a badge are trademarks, and the diagrams are drawn artwork.

Which puts it where a map sheet sits: the facts are usable, the published document isn't. A generic engine designation — 2.0L DOHC — describes a configuration rather than a brand, and drawn fresh the whole thing is clean.

Which engine should it be?

The one the garage actually sees.

An independent specialist has a make they live inside, and their customers know it. A general garage might prefer something universal — a wheel-nut sequence, which is five or six numbers and understood by everybody who has ever changed a tyre.

For a restorer, an engine they've rebuilt more than once. The specificity is the point; a generic table is a texture.

Does it work for other trades?

Every trade with a spec has this shirt available.

Welders have joint preparation diagrams and procedure sheets. Plumbers have pipe sizing tables. Riggers have load charts. Aircraft engineers have torque values with a signature block beside them.

Wiring diagrams are the closest relative and already have their own piece — correctness is what makes them read as insider.

Is this for the workshop or for customers?

Workshop first, and it earns its keep there.

Garage shirts get destroyed, so they're bought in quantity and mostly bought boring. Something the team actually finds correct is worn differently from something with the shop's name in a script font. The garage name belongs small, at the foot, like a stamp on a manual page.

It sells to enthusiasts too, and enthusiasts are exactly the audience who will check the numbers.

Does it print well?

Yes — tables and technical diagrams are ideal artwork.

Hard rules, flat circles, numerals. Nothing to fill in, no gradients, and it reads as a block from a distance. The fastener names in the left column are the fine element and want fewer rows set larger than a real spec page.

Charcoal, oil-black, and dark grey suit the workshop. Two inks — cream for the table, orange or red for the sequence numbers — makes the diagram the focal point, which is correct.

How do I get one made?

Describe the spec at JustOG — the engine, the figures, and which sequence to draw. Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order and shipped.

Designs other people have published are in the shop.

Centre outward, three passes. Anybody who's done it recognises the shape.