Itinerant Air-Cooled

Ugh...
Well i took my gas tank out the other day to get it cleaned out.
Once it was out i decided to replace the inner tie rod as the boot looked like it had seen better days.
After that i decided to clean up a bit and found an unwelcome surprise.
Lurking beneath the factory undercoating on the cross panel was a bit of rust - after poking at it I discovered it was more than a bit.

What are my options here? Take body off and replace entire panel or can I get away with a patch?
It looks like this panel has an inner and outer skin.

Patch it! You can buy new replacement firewalls to cut up for a correct patch. When I did my pan off convertible restoration, my firewall was worse than that. I wish I'd patched it vs. replacing the whole thing. It's a HUGE job to remove it. Ton's of spot welds across the top, sides and bottom.

If I did it again, I'd do what I'm recommending to you. To do that repair right, you really need to remove the body off the pan. You're probably going to find rust in the top hat (that the firewall rests on and bolts to up front) as well. If you do, buy a new top hat and cut off what you need to patch your existing one. The complete top hats don't fit for crap.

thanks wcfvw69
that helps a ton.
Not sure yet if ill try and tackle this or have a shop take a look. im pretty new to welding.