Finally, I can begin the repair. The first step is to cut the patch to the size of my new hole. Actually, I have already taken several measurements by this point in the process... just to be certain I didn't cut away too much material from my car. In fact, the patch was still a little too small on the passenger side where the rust had crossed over the top of the frame rail. I had to repair that before I began this process, but it was similar to the floor repair so I didn't include it on this site.
Cut the Patch down to size:
After putting a panel crimp in both the patch and the car, spot weld the panel in place from the top. This required a little massaging along the way.
Next, the panel was stitch welded from the underside to completely seal the new panel to the car. Welding while lying on your back tends to wear out your welding jacket quickly. But the panel is in place, and will be virtually undetectable from the underside once the final finishing and painting is completed:.
Completed welding and grinding process, not so much grinding on the top side as it will all be hidden under the carpet and seat anyway:
Topside is painted:
Here is the underside. You can see the cleaned patch panel against the still dirty underside. Once the remainder of the repairs to the under-structure are completed and the frame connectors are added, the whole underside will be coated with POR-15:
