Could someone show me how to remove the <strong> tags around the quoted portions in this mod?

Did I say PLEASE? I sure did.

Thanks to all the caring people at UBBDEV. I should have come around sooner and gotten professional help rather than wasting precious time and energy. Thanks again.

well you can do it 2 ways, first, you can use CSS

blockquote strong { font-weight: normal; }

which would not require modifications.

The other would be to look for [ qb] in ubb_new_reply.cgi and remove both the [ qb] and the [ /qb]

You need to add some width to the margin. The current setting of 0px for the vertical will cause it to pull tight. So either adjust it to 0px 20px 20px 20px or just change it to 20px to have a 20 pixel margin all the way around.