Battle of the Bulge Part 1

Trying to fix my poor workmanship with bondo

Back in 1999, when I made my first real attempt at restoring Old Yeller, I did a lot of cutting and welding to replace rusted floor pans, braces and fender sheet metal. At the time, I wasn't as savvy as I am now, so it didn't occur to me that I didn't have to use the whole replacement panel if an area had just a small problem. Case in point is the lower section ahead of the passenger rear wheel.
I can't remember what the condition of the original panel was, but regardless, I used the whole new piece, which meant I cut a large portion of (probably) good straight sheet metal out and welded in the whole new piece. The result, due to my crude welding skills, was a nice bulge right over the fender well where I have a seam that warped due to overheating. I remember at the time actually trying to fix the mess by re-cutting at the seam to give some space for the warped metal to flatten out.
I'm finally turning my complete focus on prepping the body, and this area is my starting point. I actually didn't remember much of what I did until I started really working
the area, trying to level it out with body filler. I quickly realized that it was going to take a really thick application to even come close to something smooth, so I immediately went to plan B.

Gave up on the filler. Time to cut and re-weld

As hard as it was, I got the cutting wheel out to try and create some space for the metal to lay down. This time, I decided to try cutting an "X" right on top of the worst area to allow the bulge to flatten. After some work with a dolly and hammer, it looked like the plan would succeed.
Once re-welded, I applied a new layer of filler. It looked like the plan would work. With the air file I recently purchased, I worked the area slowly with a finer grit (80) to the point where I think it will be imperceptible to all but the most astute Classic Chevy buff.
There was one small spot just above the lip of the fender that still had a pretty good bump, though. I again contemplated a thick layer of filler, but cooler logic prevailed, so yesterday I got the disc sander out and took all of the body filler off the reveal my sloppy, lumpy weld from 18 years ago.

A little more careful welding to pull things together

I decided to try and just grind the weld down more rather than subject the area to even more stress and heat. After I did that, I again got out the hammer and worked the spot until it felt like the majority of the lump was gone. I applied a new layer of filler and got the sander
out again.
After a number of thin layers of filler, with sanding in between each, I felt like I was finally getting to something resembling the original fender shape.