Thank you for your kind words.
Jamie, I don't do this for a living I just enjoy the challenge of "making stuff" in the shed for R&R and hopefully it works out in the end. We are all blessed with particular skills and sometimes the only one I have is dogged determination, much to the frustration of my wife.
The internet is a great source of information to get some useful advice. It also helps if you have a like minded person to bounce ideas off.
Keith at your request I have some pictures here of a headlight mounting plate, the pictures explain better than I can in words, what I used to make it. These flat panels are quite simple to make using these techniques with a hammer solid work bench and some wood. I used cold rolled steel.
I am trying for the RS look for the front of my car and needed something to mount the headlight buckets to. I was going to cut and weld the original bracket however it was more practical and neater to make a new one. When using the wooden block I can make both a right and left side by flipping it over and using the other side.
Hopefully this gives some inspiration to have a crack. the worst thing that can happen is you end up with a piece of scrap metal.