The Car has to Go

My 1965 Chevelle has to go. I am working on building a new pull behind smoker and I need the money and the shop space. I have had the car for 12 to 13 years. I bought this car because I thought I would be able to put an engine in it and go racing. Of course things do not work out that way. At the age of 18 making about $5.00/hr, I had to buy tools and equipment to work on the car which took away from money spent on the car. I spent thousands of dollars on tools, welder and everything else I needed to work on the car instead of parts for the car. In the mean time I had moved it out of the garage and into a shop. As time goes on, I get married, have kids, buy a house, buy cars and the chevelle gets left behind. I still wanted to go racing as I have always loved racing, I even work in the racing industry, but the expense is just more than I can handle.

So I decided that it was time to sell the car and make room for another smoker. I will be building a pull behind smoker that will handle big volumes of meat and capable of catering, vending or whatever. Anyway, below is a fairly compelete list of things I have done to the car

Frame

• Fabricated front engine plates for small block Chevy
• Mid engine plate
• Engine relocated about 10 inches back
• Fabricated dropout transmission cross member
• Floor pan support and seat mount framing
• Two drive shaft loops installed
• Frame rails trimmed for tire clearance
• 30 X 10.5 tires fit nicely and look great
• 8 X 10 Custom made rally wheels

Body

• Rear wheel wells opened up for larger tire
• Body smoothed and ready for final prep
• Rain drip rails removed from over windows
• All steel body
• All material removed from hood and reinforced
• One piece front end (all steel, welded together)

Chassis
Front End

• New Bushings, teeth removed for easy maximum front end lifting action
• New ball joints
• New tie rods
• New drag link
• Moroso trick springs
• Disk brake spindles and hardware (not installed)
• 7/16” X 3” wheel studs

Rear End

• Chevy 12-bolt (factory 65 Chevelle rear end)
• 4.88 Gears w/ spool and ARP bolts
• C-clip eliminators
• Stock axles
• ½” X 3” screw-in wheel studs
• New GM yoke and nut
• GM chrome rear end cover
• All mounting brackets are solid welded for strength
• Factory trailing arms are boxed in for strength
• Aluminum bushings in trailing arms
• Upper trailing arms are shortened for desirable rear end pitch
• New trailing arm bolts
• Moroso rear tick springs (very stiff for planting the rear tires)

Here are a few pics. The body is very straight. It has been smeared with bondo and sanded several times for the smoothing of the body. The blotches of bondo that you see are from the smoothing, and not dent fillers. The car was straight and needed very little work. There was some rust i the rear quarter, but we cut it out and welded some new sheet metal in.

Front angle view


Engine Mounting



Floor Framing


Rear Quarter with 30" Tall Tires Tucked

Atomic Buffalo Turds

I did not invent the atomic buffalo turds, I just cook them.
There are many different way that buffalo turds can be made. You can google it and get a pretty good idea of how many different creative varities of bufflo turds there are. Here is the basic receipe and instructions for how I make mine.

Atomic Buffalo Turds:

20-30 Large Jalapeno peppers
1 block cream cheese, room temperature
1 package thick sliced bacon
40-60 toothpicks
Small package of Little Smokies

Take the peppers, cut the off the stems and split them into halves. Now rinse out any remaining seeds from the inside of the pepper with cold water and place them on a paper towel to dry. Remeber, when coring the peppers - the amount of membrane you leave inside the pepper will determine how hot the turds are. The more membrane you leave, the hotter the turd will be.

Tip: use a small fan to blow across in front of you (not in your face) when cutting peppers. This moves the burning air and keeps you from getting all choked up.

Take your bacon and slighty brown it. You do not want to cook the bacon, but just slightly brown. This process greatly reduces the cook time of the turds and reduces the risk of overcooking to peppers. Place the bacon on a paper towel and let them cool.

Time for the cream cheese. If your cream cheese is not room temperature, it will need to be softened (15-20 seconds in the microwave) to make it a little easier to spread. Some people like to season the cream cheese with Mrs. Dash, liquid smoke or other spices/seasonings - just don't over do it. If you want to turn your buffalo turds into "atomic" buffalo turds just add some cayenne pepper in the mix. Using a buter knife, spread the cream cheese evenly onto the pepper halfs.

Place a little smokie or other choice of meat on top of the cream cheese mixture. Wrap the pepper with a piece of your sligtly browned bacon and place a toothpick all the way through to hold it all together.

Now your buffalo turds are ready for smoking. I place them in the cold smoke chamber on my soker and keep them about 150-180 for an hour or so. You can place them into your main cooking chamber at around 225-250 but only let them cook for 30-35 minutes.

Here are a few pictures of my buffalo turds "on the half shell".







Have fun and eat with caution! ;)

Picture of the smoker doin its thang

Well, here is ol' smokey. I built back it 2000 so it has a few years in its belly. In this pitcure there are 2 Briskets, 3 horseshoes of sausage, 4 links of brautwurst, about 10 pieces of chicken and a couple dozens buffalo turds cooking.

Barbecue and Beer, Now Open For Business

Welcome to my new blog, Barbecue and Beer. I have created this blog as a place for barbecue fans to hang out and drink beer when the pit is not lit. When the friends are not over, the wife is content and the smoker is not smoking, you can always come to Barbecue and Beer and meet up with great people that share your interest.

Thanks for coming over and joining the party! Now it is time to relax and hang out, so go get a cold one - pop the top - and enjoy yourself.

Cheers,
the Meat Head