Welders and body guys, a little help please

[lally911]

New suspension pan is going in my 85 due to battery acid corrosion. The metal lip on the body that the new pan gets welded to, shown below, currently has the lip from the old pan still attached and some rust sandwiched in between. The problem is there isn't much metal left and if I split off the remaining old pan lip and grind off the rust there won't be much left to weld the new pan to.

Any suggestions on how to proceed would be appreciated. I left the old pan metal attached thinking that a bit more meat would be stronger but now think that the rust sandwiched in between will prevent a good weld.

The car is primarily a track car so its got to be solid around the suspension points.

Thanks for any help.

[widebody911]

I'd at least grind off the vestigial lip to get a look-see what we're dealing with. You could always weld the new piece on, then weld a reinforcement afterwards. Since it's a track car, you don't have to worry about losing the concours points.

[lally911]

Thanks Thom, concours points are no longer a concern, only lap times. The general consensus seems to be that a strong weld will never be achieved without clean metal to metal contact between the pieces so I guess I'll be peeling off the old pan edge and working with whats left.