fm3 coded 340 auto duster resto...............

Hey, your GC is the same color as my wifes! ...... lol....figured id mention it because around here anyways I never see any that color (ours is all that color though....bumpers and all because its the limited edition).

the bumper and lenses on the back of the dart looks clean....so do the side markers. should have stripped that kind of stuff and resold to members here that might be looking for it and made yourself a couple extra bucks.

sounds like you have a plan though. what I did when I was doing similar work on my duster was.....cut out the bad spot in the car,then then measure what you cut out,then cut that out on the line on the new steel with a cut off wheel. by doing so it will leave you with a roughly 16th" gap all the way around so when welding there is room for expansion so the heat wont warp the panel all to crap.

also ....not sure if your aware....but harbor freight sells I nice little air flanging/punching tool ( I had one but sold it to a member ).....you basically cut out the bad spot in the car,then take and cut a peice of new steel a little larger,then flange the edges and punch holes around it,then lay it in place and plug weld each punch and your done. you can get the tool for pretty cheap to and there are discount codes for HF all over the internet too.

and make sure you use seam sealer on all your welds.

check out my build thread (link in my signature below) if you get a chance and you might see a few things I did with metal that will give you some ideas and you might also see some floor pan stuff that I did that you might like.

looking good though. keep up the work!