Salesguy01, the bolts were held in by J-Clips, but the nuts were detached from the stamped steel portion, so they needed to be held on the opposite side. I managed this by cutting an access hole in the pane beneath the floor pan.

In the background, you see some Kano Kroil, my preferred penetrating oil. The stuff works wonders, and it even smells good. I recommend them above any other penetrating oil, but you can only get it through mail order.

Using the thinnest cutoff wheels I could find, I cleaned up the cuts in my floors. The red paint lines show the new metal boundaries. I would cut, test fit, cut some more, and test fit until it was perfect. This took a long time to get right, and it helps to have a helper below to keep the pan from falling through. Welding magnets work pretty well too.

When the fit was finally good, I gave the patch panels a coat of paint, as well as any metal I could get at in the car. Then I sanded the edges to prepare it for welding.

The Rally II wheel in the background is part of a set that needs repainting. I can do another thread on that.

I welded the panels in using Hobart Handler 135 MIG unit. Voltage was set to "1" (not sure what units), using .023" solid core wire feeding at 10 ft/min, and C25 shield gas at 25 CFM (higher worked even better). I spot welded around the entire perimeter of the panel, jumping sides as frequently as possible to avoid heat buildup. When I got down to 1/2" gaps between the spots, I tried laying seams, but they kept burning through, so I kept going with the spot welds until the end, and cleaned up with a grinder.


Driver Rear Section:


A shop light under the car helped find pin holes that I missed while welding. The red circles mark them for welding later.