I'd check the seam at the trunk floor and the inner wheel house before getting too carried away. I have been told that inner is the "foundation" to the outer + quarter combo repair. Be sure to pick at the thick seam sealer there, inside the trunk. Mine was rock hard and broke off, revealing plenty of cancer underneath between the floor and inner.
Ditto everyone said about practice. Be sure to practice some welding perpendicular to the floor/ground. Welding that way is more difficult and it comes up a lot when working on the car body, such as joining the inner and outer wheel well flanges. Not just for your skill, but learning when the machine "likes". I use a 200$ Cambell-Hausfeld welder and it works well (I do wish the heat settings had more fine-grained control though), but when going to perpendicular welds, I've found turning the speed up a full point from 5.5 to 6.5 works well. I practiced directly on my project and my perpendicular welds were atrocious until I learned this.
Just my 02; Butt welds are nice, but they do require a lot more fitting to get perfect. As others have said, the vast majority of time is spent in fitment. I mostly use laps because of this. Good luck!
-J
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