Well tonight was the first productive night in a long time. I first took off the bonnet to set it aside so not to damage it in any way. After that I ran to sears and bought a well needed new drill bit set and then harborfreight to buy a spot weld cutter. By far the greatest purchase ever from HF, it worked perfectly.

I pulled the car out of the garage and started drilling. I could feel out the spot welds so there was no need to strip the paint. After drilling a pilot hole, I used the cutter to cut around the spot weld. Everything went well and the rocker panel fell off.Now I have a good idea of what kind of damage I am looking at. I'm pleased with what I have to work with. There seems to be enough of the castle rail for me to just use sheet metal to make a patch.