Just bite the bullet pal. Had to do the same thing on my Dakota. I was worried that a make shift repair wouldn't last, and I would lose all the oil on the highway and blow the engine.
Same here with my '02 Dakota with the 4.7. Transmission pan wasn't far behind so I did 'em both. Don't remember what I paid for the pans, got 'em at NAPA as I recall.
It almost looked like the originals were painted with a base/clear paint, water got between the layers and got trapped causing the rust.