I have this problem on my 72, and since I had a bunch of sheetmetal from another project, I just cut an overlay patch and brought the hole down after using rust converter and rust primer. Then I did the big rust hole in the floor and slid it upside the kick panel patch. I am rebuilding the truck not really restoring it. I plan then to make or buy a carpet cover to go over the sins. When the next rebuilder comes in 40 years from now, he can call me anything he wants!
So you could just sheet metal screw the thing together, and if you got short self taping ones, you could do it in minutes with a cordless drill/driver. If you got a shiny piece of aluminum diamond plate you could make it kinda neat if you wanted.
We had to do this with lower wall panels on a dining car we were restoring. It had huge holes in it and it was just not in the budget to cut and replace all that stuff. It had scuff plates on it anyway. It was an MKT car and they were kind of a poor man's railroad.
