Hello Derek, Welcome to the site. Gas welding is the best method of welding I believe. You said you are taking a course at a tech. While this is worth doing to learn the basics the methods used to join thicker steel and those used for joining sections of panel are totally different.
If done correctly it is possible to gas weld sections of panel together and get very little distortion, what you do get can be easily dressed out.
You can see me doing some gas welding and the results on my youtube footage.
David
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