I'm leaning more towards the way ya'll did it just for the simplicity of it and lack of fab experience.
I still have the factory 64-66 lip that was spot welded to the factory windshield lip, did either one of your dashes still have that?
Should I keep that and weld it to the windshield lip or cut it and move it in more? I cut all of the 73 dash out so I plan to add some braces to the under side as well.