Using my angle iron I finally got things aligned properly. This really took a while and I ended up using lots of clothes pegs, also hot glued, to keep things steady. After all I do have to have it secure enough to drill.
Pic 2 shows after some hours the careful cutouts for the hinges. Pic 3 and after some research and thought I decided on where the rivets were going and how many. Confirming the alignment many times I drilled out for the smallest cleco size I had and called it a day.