[82stepside]

Hey Ben, i have seen some old schoolers place the patch panel over the existing sheet metal making sure they overlap each other like maybe an inch clamp securely, then take the thinnest cuttoff wheel they can find or a thin sawzall blade and then cut the patch panel and the existing panel in the overlapping area all the way through at the same time. Then they remove what falls off and they fall into place. As a rule i think the notion is to always trim the patch panel and not the existing, so if you can mark the backside of the patch against the existing and just fit and trim with grinder a million times till its right you'll probably end up with a good fit. Or there is a tool that rolls a flanged bead in the panel thats just a sheet metals thickness that you can then trim to that edge, spot weld the lap and weld the seam, leaving the lap joint it creates. I saw that one on MuscleCar....

Hope that gets your mind thinking!