Thursday after the morning hunt I made a small patch to fill the gap at the bottom of the patch panel and berated myself for rounding the inside corners!
I welded it in and cut the radius to match and ground down my bird-crap welds. I test fit the flange and it looked good.
I drilled some lead holes into my patch as I would be securing it with sheet metal screws. Next I pulled the column, removed the 68 style flange/gasket and replaced it with the one from the 89. I slid the column back in place slid my patch panel over the shaft and then bolted the column back in place. With everything in I shoved the flange through the hole in the patch panel to orient it properly then drilled two of the sheet metal screws in. After that I took a body hammer and formed the patch to the rest of the irregularities of the firewall adding screws as I went. When done it was skewed a bit from what I had planned but it won’t show anyway. I removed the sheet metal screws and put a thick bead of black silicone sealer on the back of the plate, screwed it back down and smoothed out the silicone.
Then I screwed the flange to the firewall/patch and painted the under-hood side black to match the firewall.
Finally, I bolted the booster back on with the patch in place and it cleared with room to spare!
-Richard