Cost of welding..

[Simpson]

I  share your exact pain the sh!tter i have just bought has no rust outsde but when i ran my hands aorund inner skin aside from mud loads of metal fell out too! reckon its possible to weld without welding a  new panel in? or is it as convenient to chop old panel out first?  let me know how you get on?

[sc]

the car will need paint after welding on bodywork
regrdless on if you touch the actual paint the body work is gonna get to hot and at the least make the paint bubble up

[VeeDubGTI16v]

get a pic of the rust up. im thinking if the hole is big it might be worth cutting the metal out of a scrapped car because its gonna be tricky getting the shape right out of sheet steel. you probably have a rusted bracket for the fuel filler neck so that will need remaking as well