The door handle fix. When I got the truck, the outside door handle on the driver side worked pretty good, both opening it and latching it closed again, but in 49 Dodge didn't have an outside door lock available for the driver's door, even as an option. There was no handle on the inside, but with a crescent wrench clamped onto the lever, it would sort of move, would unlatch the door, but then you had to force the lever the other way for it to latch again. On the passenger side, you could turn the outside handle, but had to really jerk the door to open it or slam it hard to close. Sometimes it would latch, sometimes it wouldn't. I spent many hours straightening out the bent door frame and the roof section above that door. The door would swing better and not bind up anymore, but the latch was still temperamental about latching or unlatching. To make things worse, the door latches were both the old wedges that latched against other wedges. Those style latches tended to let the doors get jarred open on rough roads. I had these Dakota modern latches and and posts just sitting there, and I've done this before. The key locks on the Dakota door handles even matched the ignition key. Out with the old, in with the new, except it isn't exactly that easy.
Pic 1, Two important things about this pic, 1 this is the widest part of the door. Its important because the Dakota door is wider then the 49's door, for the Dakota latch to work, it needs to be located in the widest point on the door. 2, this picture shows the original latch system. The top wedge (just above the center of the pic at the inner edge of the door) is the latch itself. When the handle is turned, this wedge retracts inside of the door. To latch again, it needs to come completely back out. As the right side of the edge piece wears off, the worst it will latch. The bottom wedge (facing sideways near the small round hole in the door) is the alignment wedge. It is what is suppose to keep the door from bouncing up or down so the latching wedge keeps engaged with its matching part on the door post. The small hole in the door frame is for access to remove the set screw for the door lock (this is the passenger door, and the only door lockable).
Pic 2, This pictures shows both the door latch matching parts. The double wedge piece is the part the latch wedge locks against. The 1st step (on the left) would be the "emergency latch, which would not close the door tight, the second step is the primary latch which would hold the door tightly closed. The small indentation at the bottom of the pic is the slot for the alignment wedge to slide into. These two pictures are my passenger side door, the hole in the sheet metal between the two latch pieces on the door post is where someone ripped the metal trying to pull the door frame back in place.
Pic 3, The rest of these pictures are from the driver side of the truck. I already had the latch stuff cut out of this door before I thought about taking pictures. The door latch is held in position with 3 screws. None of then came out even with an impact screw remover. This is how much of the door had to be cut out to get the old latch assembly out. The channel you see running up and down through the inside of the door is the window track. The old latch occupied space on both sides of the window track, and the Dakota latch will have to do the same. The glass would be on the other side of the channel from this viewpoint, which is looking at the edge of the door.
Pic 4, This is the same cut out viewed from the inside of the door, again, the window track is the channel inside of the door (the glass would be on the right side of the window track). The large hole with the small hole close by would be where the outside door latch came through the outside door skin, the small hole was for the handle mounting screw.