Looks like I'm on track to have this pan finished by Christmas.
Today I finished tack welding the pan into its place. Now I have one more goofey looking patch to make and I can finish the welding on this side! I also had to figure out a way to fix my own stupidity when I went to tack the edge parralel to the transmission tunnel. I must have had a few too many beers before I made that cut.
So I figured, easiest way was to put a peice of 3/16 steel rod in there and weld away. That should do the trick.