Some more progress this weekend. 

Took the dash out

Which revealed this mess

Harness disconnected and (kind of) organized

Heater core and rest of the dash / wiring harness removed.

Also stripped all of the sound deadening from the front floor pans / trans tunnel / and area below the windshield behind the dash.

After removing the ABS pump and unbolting other various things like the brake booster, pedal assembly, clutch master slave cylinder, etc. etc. I had enough room to move the fusebox around and was able to pull the entire harness out through the firewall without cutting anything thusly:

Hoping I remember where everything goes when it comes time to put it back in.  I took some time to label everything and wrap it up....it really isn't that bad.  It's really logical, makes sense because it was designed by Germans.  I plan on reworking it a bit, especially the engine side, to make it a little more organized and a look a little less like shit.  Though I will say that this 20 year old harness was better than the one that came on the LS1, so at least it has that going for it.  Officially nothing left to bolt from the car....ok well except for the trunk lid and wiper assembly.

Washed the engine bay

 Then decided to get to work on some rust repair on the drivers side floor area.  Yep, it's rusty

Wire wheeled to bare metal to determine where the solid stuff starts.  Noting where nearby seams and spot welds already were, I decided to cut much more than I needed to in order to make aligning my patch panel easier (as well as look more professional).

Coated the bare metal in etching primer for now to keep corrosion at bay.

The area of the raised "plateau" there is a heavy structural member of the car which looks to be rock solid peaking through the access ports there.  I drilled out the spot welds along this flange and cut through a single layer of sheet metal (2 are present here).  I then separated it at the seam in the kick pan (running towards the rocker in this image).

 The whole idea of starting on the inside and working out was to give me something solid to weld to by the time I get to the inner most layer of the rocker panels.  Additionally, I figured I'd have a harder time maintaining a reference if I were to cut out the rocker, then cut out the floor, and work backwards trying to figure out what size my patch panels needed to be. 

Planning my next move, I started looking at this structural member that the drivers seat mounts to.  It is basically a rectangular tube that is flanged on all edges and spot welded to the trans tunnel, floor, and inner rocker layer.  Looking in at the cross section from the outside, the tube is rusted near its contact points with the floor up to about where I had removed the floor at the seam.  Once you get about an inch off the floor it is clean as hell though, so my plan is to make a patch for the section on either side that I drew with sharpie.  Again, much more than I need to cut but it will make patch panel alignment much easier.  Easier alignment = better fit-up = better welds. 

More to come.