[78 GHOST]

Hi Will, all I can offer is what I did..

I had numerous areas around the car, but everything was pretty small.

I knew paying someone to perform extensive repairs was going to easily exceed the cost of a welder. I'm pretty handy so I decided to purchase a Miller 120 MIG machine with a good helmet and shielding gas, all up around $1000 a few years back.

It took me an afternoon to build my welder cart as practice.

I've used the welder to perform all necessary repairs on my car, mostly stuff like you've described, but also a lot of little stuff that really was annoying.

I'm happy with this as I've got a valuable skill and a tool that comes in handy quite often. I can easily say I've paid for my welder many times over in saved repair costs.

As to the time involved, plan on spending most of your time learning, then actually performing the repair will seem inconsequential.

Were you to have a welder, and the skills, I'd estimate probably around 4-8 hours per side from demo to primer.. maybe more but I'm pretty finiky. Shop rate, I'd cut that in half. I didn't use any partial quarters, just some scrap sheet I formed to make the necessary patches.. in fact the rear LH quarter is all patched in and I doubt anyone would know without being told.

I wish you were closer and I'd loan you my welder.. see if you know anyone or any PY members close to you willing to loan you a MIG. Check Craigslist for used welders as you can often get a lotta bang for your buck welder wise.

-Matt