Radio mount - Cutting into the dashboard

I finally set aside some time to cut out the the mess the PO made of the radio section of the dashboard.

You can see in the center, where they cut the knob opening on each side and bent them inward, then took pliers and peeled back the base edge, to force fit a modern radio in the space. Sigh. My donor truck has this part of the dash, so I cut this section out of the donor dashboard. Used that piece as a template, you can see the sharpie marks here outlining the piece I need to cut out of this dash.

(yep, the defroster tubing in the back is torn, that's a diff. project)

AND, here is a "during" picture. I cut out the old section (above), and welded in the new section (left)

Then I liberally applied filler to fill in the scratches of my amateur welding and grinding job. Most of that will sand off, and hopefully leave me with a stock radio opening, while keeping the little ashtrays and glove box opening original.






Here is the "After" of the old radio opening, now out and in the trash.

And the dash as it is right now, with the bondo sanded off, and primed with a matte black for now.

I swear, my sloppy grinder work is more telling with some of the divots in the metal, than my amateur welding!

(Top of the left side dial opening) but overall very pleased with how it turned out. If I can get the speedo side of the dash as smooth with a rattle can, I will just leave the dash matte black rustoleum!