hi technel, glad you got the first problem sorted and cheers on the comment too
1) can't quite make out the first problem, if I get 2 mins I'll have a look
2) you can simply delete the edge. Make sure you use edit polygons - > delete edge as this removes any spare vertices (none in this case though). If you just pressed delete then it could leave vertices about and probably cause problems later on. Have a look at how you create a custom shelf and add the delete edge tool to it as you might use it a lot in the future - it also saves going to edit polygons etc...
3) I've not tried proxy modelling yet so cant help on that one