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12/4/23: Well the can of worms is getting bigger. The rust is under the seat riser lip so I decided to remove a section from the front, rather than remove the whole riser. I made vertical slices near the sides so I can do a butt weld on the floor, splice in a new riser lip then weld it back in.

Once the riser lip was removed, the back and floor panel fit really good on the back and the rocker panel. I started working on the lower inner cowl fitment. I ended up cutting the existing cowl a bit too high. Being right handed and working on the right inner cowl, I discovered access wasn’t going to be real easy and seeing with the sparks coming at my face didn’t help either. So I took the piece I cut out a started to weld it back in an immediately blew a hole in the panel. Thats when I discovered the inner cowl (kick panel) is thinner than the floor. I measured the panel at .032”, so that is between 20 and 22 gauge. The floor is 18 gauge. I did manage to complete the butt weld after readjusting the welded, so the “oops” is fixed.

After several attempts, I got the lower cowl to fit. When I placed the floor section in, the two didn’t mate up at all.

After about two hours of installing/removing/cutting/welding/tweaking both panels then repeat, about what seemed like a hundred times, I finally got them to fit together. Gotta love those offshore patch panels.

I then spent several hours wire brushing the surface rust and applying rust treatment. I'm ready to install the panels so I should be welding in a day or two.