Could you do some surgery on the back of the panel to allow you to pound it out from the backside? If you had a clean 1" hole or two, you could do some pretty good metal shaping using a hardwood dowel through the hole. Grind the end of the dowel slightly convex and you could shape metal in about a 3" diameter around each hole. Just make a hole with a size and location that you could repair the area easily and invisibly.
Of course having a stud welder and a heavy slide hammer would accomplish the same pretty quickly too. I think your stud locations are good but just plan on going easy to gradually work it out. Just plan on redoing all the studs at least a couple times. The gap should close somewhat but that can be dealt with later with some welding if need be.
Some stuff like this I have outsourced to a pro (If you can move the vehicle) as it's often cheap and super fast since they are only doing the one repair and no prep - just getting it close and the right guy can work this to the point of not needing filler. I've had annoying stuff like this fixed in a day for literally $100. That can be satisfying too...
Last edited by canadiantim; 12/27/2020 5:12 AM.
