That is the plan of attack, but at each point I have sought the path of least resistance and have been sliding incrementally down the slippery slope to total war. If I can get out of this without having to replace the entire section, I will call it a win. Anything better than that will be a miracle!

Yeah, I'm on a similar track. Peeled off patches that look like they were just cut from whatever was lying around and just layered over whatever was there, got to the console and removed it. Stay strong!

So I have leaped in with both feet. I started cutting. I had to cut out my "GT style" battery tray (fabricated from angle iron). I started to clear out the section of the shelf that would need to go and clear off the paint etc to see where are the welds are that I would need to drill out.
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I accidentally trimmed too much and revealed the chassis under the suspension console at one point and decided I would see how bad things are before killing myself drilling out all the welds and finding that there is nothing behind it.
I cut a peek hole in the console and revealed rusty(loks to be mostly surface) but solid metal underneath.
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I now need to get another couple of abrasive discs, a better face shield and the weld cutter to get in and really make some headway.