I was waiting to have a bit more done but at the rate I've been working lately I might as well...
First of all this is required before any work begins these days:
and here's the column passthru (will clean up):
Boxing the frame rail in. This outer piece sits on the frame rail's lower edge (rail has a lip that extends out). Because of that lip it does not sit against the upper edge of the rail. This was the solution:
Inner plate template:
and in metal:
Top Plate:
and more templates to fill all those gaps:
That's it for now. Believe it or not; those templates can take some time to make. But the better they are, the less work required to make the real thing fit. Plus I should be able to use them again on the other side.