I here ya on the cutoff wheel being tedious. I used the plasma cutter from work. You can just push the connecter up against the floor pan but it will hang down about a 1/2 lower than the rail. I wasn't too worried about the strength of the 1.5 section as most of the old connecters like the MP ones are only 1.5x2. Plus I welded mine to the floor pan where it touched. Originally, I didn't intend on welding to the floor because I wasn't keen on scraping off a bunch of undercoating in the area. In the end, I got carried away and removed all the undercoating off the bottom of the car. Being told that undercoating typically weighs 50 to 100 lbs was my motivation.