Tonight I finished (not this late but much earlier) the welding of the top channels on the side and front panels for the box. It worked out to approximately 80" of weld for a butt joint. Other then taking a while as I had to wait for the each pass of welds to cool before moving on, it went really well. Many clamps were used to hold the panels down flat to the work bench. I then went back with a flap disk and cleaned down the welds and blended them into the surrounding metal.
Tomorrows (todays now due to the hour
) plan is to finish the front panel and start in on the sides.