Hell Hole Rust discovered, go me... Options

[VaccaRabite]

So, I had thought that spot through the firewall was isolated. I was wrong.

(IMG:http://static.flickr.com/35/71884394_abb0fd7653.jpg)

(IMG:http://static.flickr.com/34/71884388_3b4916eb8b.jpg)

I took out the battery tray, as it was looking ratty. After I had it out, I started probling with a screw driver and a hammer to see what was surface rust, and what was problem rust.

It seems like the inner fender has issues in the hell hole, as does the engine surround. But the long is solid. I was really whaleing at it with the hammer and screwdriver, and nothing went through. Also, above the hell area, there is surface rust, but I could not probe through that either.

How do I fix this? Do I need to take off the outer quarter panel? If so, exactly how do I go about doing that?

At this point, should I fix it and weld in a new battery tray there, or move the battery to a box in the back?

This is not the first time that the battery box had been replaced. It looked like the top to the tray had been rusted out, cut out, and a new top welded in a long time ago. The person who welded it in, also managed to burn through the inner pass-side quarter panel on one of his tack welds, so that area was weak too. maybe a waek spot the size of a quarter.

And, I went out into the garage tonight with the intentions of pulling out my crumbly old fuel lines....

Zach