Spot on Neal...
Normally you just unstitch the complete front panel and weld the new one in, and its location would be pretty much right locating onto the inner wings in the same place as the old one...
But the car has to have inner wings for this to work...or at least you need a good few of reference points to line stuff up...
On the N/s of Robs shorty there wasnt much to join to as far back as 1/2 way though the battery box, and there was no point in doing the job and leaving rot there...So the best bet was to use more of the donor front and iradicate all the rust in one hit...
The slam panel was good, and as Neal said kept the front end position when the front panel and inner wings were cut out...
I opted to cut through the headlight holes as there was no corrosion whatsoever in this area, and visual alignment to get things roughly right is easier with circles, as the shape varies in diameter with its height...This also put the cut between the intercooler/rad bracket holes, which meant the brackets could be bolted in again to check alignment and to hold the panel in place during welding.
Lots of trimming and test fitting till it fitted right, and then it was tacked in and headlights etc tried in their holes to make sure everything was right before the welding started in earnest.
After the front was welded in, the battery box was welded back in again over the joined innerwing...
This is a harder and more time consuming way to change a front panel really, but its a necessity if you want correct alignment and have a lot of corrosion in the inner wings. Whilst more work as seam welding across the front panel, up the inner wings, and bracing pieces sooner than just spot welding in a front panel into the existing inner wings, this way ALL the corrosion is gone from Robs front end and this meant using I guess 10"or so of the inner wings as well to replace the rotted metal.
Hope this makes sence
