Replacing Front Inner Body Panel

This was my first experience at replacing body panels. There were a couple of ways that it could be done. Do I butt weld them to the existing panel or do I overlap them? I was told that butting the pieces was the right way to do it but i didn't have the experience to go that way. So I chose to overlap the new panels. The divers side was far more gone then the passenger side especially around the hinge pillar. Installing the new panel was was my first experience in sheetmetal. To get started I placed the new piece over the rusted area and scribed the outline of it. Next, I took a cut-off wheel and remove the old metal leaving it about 1/2" strong. When the new panel was being fitted, there were some areas where it didn't "bend" right. To solve this I took a pair of tin snips and cut slits on the bottom of the panel about every inch or so. There, now it became more flexable. When I was satisfied the way it fit, I wire brushed the areas that were going to be welded and drilled 3/16" holes on the "tabs" inbetween the slits that were cut on the bottom. To hold the piece in place I found that if I used #6 x 1/2" self tapping sheetmetal screws it allowed the two pieces to be drawned tightly together. These screws were placed about every 1-1/2" apart and 3/8" from the edge. To do the welding I ran small 1/4" welds along the perimeter of the panel keeping them about 3" apart as to not warp the metal. Then i went back and spot welded in between those welds. Then the small beads were joined by longer beads until it was totally welded. From there, one screw was removed and filled in with a weld. Then every other screw was removed and welded. Eventually, all screw holes were filled. To hold the bottom of the new piece in, the holes that were predrilled were filled with weld. I went one step further by welding a bead where the slits were cut. After grinding the bottom, it became almost invisible.