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Not a truck update...
A few weeks ago I wanted to make cheese cakes to take to a couple different offices in the Hospital to show my gratitude for the excellent care they gave me, but I wanted to show a small variety without having to take 2 different pies to each clinic. So I thought up these dividers:
Attachment 1244379

on the left is obviously rasp-blackberry, and on the right is jalapeno.
They are in the oven now as I type this, and if this idea plays out like it looks like it is going to, I will be pretty jazzed !
Though it is not a truck related post, I did cough up some of my 18ga sheet metal to make the dividers.... :metal:

More on the truck soon ;)

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OOOH! Send me some! :lol:

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Could we get more pics on the pie plate mod???

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what can i say GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE lol...ahhh cheese cake you are going to send me the recipe looks great

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If only you could ship a pie....

Ummmm Ok.... will take a photo tonight for you.

I will post the recipie tonight for you, it is absuredly easy!

Should have an update soon...as I am getting closer to getting a few aspects close to completion.

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Hey UPS has refrigerated shipping!!!!! :lol:

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Ok here is my pie pan mod:
Attachment 1245723

Now that I know it works, I will super heat it to 500* and shoot it with some of the VHT 1300* paint and go from there. In the first photo you can see where I used some waxed paper to keep the steel from the pie. I will still do that even after I paint them. The paint is just going to make them easier to clean (I hope)

Now the recipie:

preheat oven with a lasagne pan that has about an inch of water in it at 325* while you start mixing the filling.
3 bricks of cream cheese (set them out a few hours prior to get them to room temp)
3 eggs (start mixing one brick of cream cheese and one egg at a time until smooth, then add a brick and an egg until smooth, repeat)
1 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Sugar

Mix until all smooth.

(at this point if you are going to add any friut or sliced/diced jalapeno peppers you can fold it into the mix, or lay them in the pie pan on top of the crust. When I make the jalapeno pepper cheese cake I like to use fresh peppers as they dont tend to cook all the way and are not mushy. The flavor and the crunchy are exceptional when done in this manner)

Pour into pie pan that has a graham cracker or oreo cookie crust.

Set the pie in the lasagne pan making sure the water does not crest the pan and get into your pie then bake for 50-60 minutes

While that is baking you can make this optional topping:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Once your pie is out of the oven and relatively cool, pour this on top of it, sprinkle with cinnamon and/or nutmeg and bake again at 325* for 10-15 minutes.

Here is a photo of my first Jalapeno Cheese Cake:
Attachment 1245744

It sounds odd, and you get strange looks when you talk about it....but people who like Poppers and/or jalapenos absolutely love this pie !!

Hit me back if you give this a try, and let me know what you thought of it :metal:

Enjoy !!

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I don't know if my fiancee will go for that. She barely tolerates the transmission in the den and the bench seat on the dens couch. (temp homes until install this weekend). But i'm going to run it by her anyways...neat trick

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pie plate mod is the clearly the best ever on this site... needs to be added to the FAQ for sure, thanks for posting the details...:haha:

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Great idea for the pie pan. I'm going to have to try out the recipe...

I would not paint the sheetmetal, the paint could still cure and give off fumes in the oven and contaminate what ever you are cooking/baking.

I would "season" it like you would a cast iron pan...

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Not sure what you are referring to sir...

Glad you like it, give it a try, its great !!

Capital idea !! Thanks you probably saved my dividers! I used to have a full set of cast iron pots and pans, lost them in a move many meay years ago.... sure do miss them !

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Not sure she'd allow more metal projects in the kitchen.....sorry

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Ok guys, probably time for an update on my craziness...

Back on the 19th I showed you the exploded tailgate photo and we teased about what I was going to do with that mess.
Well lets just jump into it shall we?

As some of you may (or may not) recall, WAY back in November of 2011, I showed the large Blazer fuel cell I got and mounted up for a rear facing/center fill configuration. I knew even then that I would be needing to raise my bed deck a minimum of 4 inches to accomdate this (because having the tank hang 5-8" lower was not an option LOL):
Attachment 1246727

What can I say? My '66 Tempest spoiled me with being able to pull up to any pump at the gas station facing any direction.
Here I have the bed sides on, and am mocking up the modifications I have in mind.
Now I strictly do not have anything against the guys who do the step-up raised beds, where there is a 3-6" ledge when they drop the tail gate, but for me, that would bother me. I want my tail gate to lie flat with the bed of the truck like I am used to seeing.
So that means shortening the 21" tall tailgate down to 14" inches.
Here is the tailgate clamped in place, with the proposed fuel fill brace in place for perspective:
Attachment 1246728

Since I cannot leave well enough alone, and I got bit by the bug some time back, I went ahead and cut out the CHEVROLET from one panel (I am actually combining 2 seperate tailgates for this mod. One had a major ding in the top, the other was seriously dinged on the bottom) this panel is going to get the same treatment as the grill did up front, only in red as opposed to the nice cool blue I used previously. (I want blue again, but I dont want any hassles with the fine folk of Law Enforcement)
Attachment 1246729

The inside of the tailgate is getting a solid CHEVROLET panel that will be welded and smoothed into the tailgate contours. The outside panel will be affixed with countersink screws, and will get the back lighting. Here is the tailgate frame, already shortened, squared (to the best of my abilities without the benefit of a framing table) and already set with the release latches from the '85 Sierra tailgate.
Attachment 1246730

Just another shot with the blue panel in place on the underside, and all my reference markings:
Attachment 1246731

Going to get down to the garage and back on this.... AFTER I swap over my snow tires on the Sonoma (a task I have been neglecting to do)
Hope the rest of you get some quality time in on your builds this weekend, I sure hope to !!

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That tailgate looks particularly trick. Your creativity always amazes!

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Ditto what Mark said… and :jdp:

How many Pizza boxes were sacrificed in this recent madness?:haha:

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Cool stuff, Murph. I like where you're headed with the tailgate.

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Off the chain! This is gonna be neat!

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I showed the grill letter cut out trick to my wife and she loved it, which Im glad cause I was thinking down the line to copy that mod!!!:metal: Then we started talking about the letters on the tailgate and I wasnt sure how that could be pulled off. We thought maybe have it brighten up a touch along with the brake lights when triggered. Leave it you McMurphy, outstanding as usual!

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Interesting. Vaaary Interesting.

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I may have more imagination than skill is the problem....

None so far sir....but the roll pan is in the works too !!

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look, sure do miss you around here some weeks, but I know you are busy too !

The best is yet to come....maybe tomorrow?

Thank you MSG and thanks for stopping by, always nice to hear positive things !! You really knocked those crud stops out of the park, you did Markb and I up one even!! Your fender repair really came out nice too, lined up very sweet for you.

Just you wait buddy !!!

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Ok so I got the inside facing panel finished welding in today. After some bondo and smoothing I think this is going to be acceptable !! One sad thing I realized after I had this all tacked on was that the four rail frame had twisted on me and I did not catch it in time to fix it without majorly hacking my tailgate up ....sooooooo I am just going to suffer with it for now as it isnt warped beyond use.
Also in this photo you may catch a cute little trick I did, but I will leave that for the hyper observant of you all !!! Good Luck:
Attachment 1247352

A full shot of the inside facing panel and how I tied in the different countours of the left and right ends....
Attachment 1247353

Here I mocked it up with the latch catchers resting in the stock gaps in the drip rail. This is how it would look if I only shortened the tailgate. Dont know about you guys, but I kind of like this look, and may do it again in the future. I also got the outside facing panel attached today by drilling 21 holes and tapping 19 of them. I started to use countersunk allen screws, but the metal of the panel is not thick enough for the size screw I used to get it to sit flush, so I am going with the button heads, and they look pretty sweet too:
Attachment 1247355

Here is a mock up of it at installation height.
I think it is going to be a rather large roll pan, and may look odd, but hopefully the entire package will balance it all out:
Attachment 1247356

One more at an oblique angle for you all:
Attachment 1247358

All in all it was a pretty productive weekend, hope you all had as much fun, or more !!!

Thanks again for checking in on me and my crazy stuff :metal:

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Speachless Jerry, I am speachlesss

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Jerry!! Jerry!! Jerry!!.......... LoL sorry could not resist. Poor Jerry Springer and the bottom feeders of society, also known as the "No Hope for the Human Race" people.
Thanks tho CRGRS, I will assume that was a compliment :metal:

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Ok guys, just a little mock up preview, you know I like to test the waters on some things. I have gotten 4 LED strips for the tailgate two 38" and two 9" with the intent that I would illuminate the CHEVROLET in a twofold manner.
Obviously we want running lights, but the lighting has to be even, it cannot appear to be brighter on one edge and fade towards the other.
I also wanted to see if I could incorporate brake lights (though my buddy downstairs made the comment that following drivers may marvel at the pretty lights and still rear end me... Thanks for that "keep me up at night" thought Daniel)
Here is a mock up using just one of the 38" strips, I will let you guess which edge I laid it in on:
Attachment 1247902Attachment 1247903

These photos are with the plexiglass insert, but at this stage it is still clear. It will bet getting a Night Shades treatment in red.
Attachment 1247904Attachment 1247905

The lights came from Oznium.com and seem to be impressively sturdy for this application, though they would be considerably bulky for others, so buyer beware. They arrived quickly, which is saying a lot for being central Alaska, and so far I am very pleased with them, and would buy more. One thing I really liked about their site was that when you go to order the lights, they also list all the other things you may want or need on the same page such as toggle switches and dimmer units.

All in all I am pretty pleased with this mod, and am going forward with it.

Thanks for looking !!

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That looks real cool McMurphy, the hard works really paying off!! Is the plexi going to be an insert to more evenly illuminate?

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[QUOTE=McMurphy;6651457]Jerry!! Jerry!! Jerry!!.......... LoL sorry could not resist. Poor Jerry Springer and the bottom feeders of society, also known as the "No Hope for the Human Race" people.
Thanks tho CRGRS, I will assume that was a compliment :metal:

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The "Jerry" was intended to be Seinfeld reference, but yes a compliment just the same. Shine on you crazy diamond:uhmk:

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Nice job on the tailgate....very cool.