Ok, so time has been limited the past week or so, making progress slow.
However, I managed to crack it over the last couple of days (despite working yesterday

).
First, as recommended, I cut back a bit more until I found good solid metal. Then after the plates arrived from mx5 restorer, matched them up and did a bit more cutting for a good fit.
Tacked the inner panel on first...

Cut out a small bit of steel to fit the large gap between the panel and the bulkhead and welded in.
Then seam welded the panel both sides; this was necessary as the original skin is thicker and was proud of the new panel on the inside of the engine bay.

The next step was to make the outer panel fit, so after some more cutting it was tacked in place. There were some pretty big gaps after all the rot had been cut out, so I plug-welded it. Not pretty, but does the job.


After grinding down some of the atrocious welding, I re-welded the arb bracket back in place. This took a bit of time; measuring up the position and getting the distances right before welding the bracket back together.

Applied a quick couple of coats of anti-rust primer...

Then waxoiled the area...

While everything was off, I stripped down the arb and supporting brackets, primed them and gave them a couple coats of enamel black. When putting back together, I took the opportunity to replace the drop links.

All done. Just need to tighten up the handbrake cable now and re-submit for MOT.
