[speeder]

Are you already a good welder? Hopefully better than good?

If not, I would find the best sheet-metal welder in your part of the world and contract him to do those repairs. You can really easily destroy that shell with a welding torch. Too much heat in one (1) spot once and you're done. The shell will twist or tweak in some other way and the whole thing is worth sheet.

If it was me, I'd practice on rusty Chevy Chevettes or old refrigerators or something for a looong time before taking a torch to that shell. But that's just me. That is WAAAAY more of a project than the one I'm working on and the one over here is a labor/time-intensive endeavor.

Get a library of good 356 books and read about mistakes that others have made before you. The collections of 356 Registry articles books that I refer to on the other thread have lots of stories of guys ruining the cars back in the day when they were only worth $5-6k restored. Usually with welding torches but occasionally with other tools. Good luck and I'll share anything I've learned if you post it as a question here. I have zero body work experience, though.