Poorboy that thing is sooo clean! Part of my truck’s charm is that it’s a beater but in reality other than the floor (which is gone now) it is in pretty decent shape. Although I am planning on doing the ratty sleeper thing with it I do want to continue to improve the bodywork little by little. I wouldn’t have been brave enough to start cutting up a truck as nice as yours. I’m sure it was plenty of work getting it to where it sat in those pics.

I got the bed mounted this week. I set it on 4 poly body mounts and made a frame to support the wood floor and strengthen the bedsides. I did lose some depth but nothing like the ‘custom’ trucks you see with laughable bed floors that are 6” from being a tonneau cover.

The rear shock mounts are finally welded to the axle. I’m surprised that the stock 1st gen dakota had such a steep shock angle! They are laid back pretty far which definitely decreases their effectiveness, plus the stock replacement monroes are not very stiff.

My motor is sitting in the chassis and back probably as far as you thought. The rear two cyls are basically under the dash. It has the stock v6 mounts temporarliy bolted to the bigblock spool mounts which is all wrong- the motor is sitting up high and cocked to the passenger side. I’m hoping to be able to drop it far enough to use some kind of decent air cleaner without losing my fresh air vent in the cowl. 1/2” clearance from the crossmember to the flat front section of my rear sump oil pan is my plan. I’m hoping to use the female tops of the dak mounts and the bolt in plates from their bottoms and connect the two back up with plate but that remains to be seen.

I’m having trouble finding ‘v8’ dakota springs they all seem spec’d for v6 applications. The moog ones are listed as progressive rate so maybe they would give a little lift? I bought shocks and some 2.5” spring spacers- they are well built steel pieces but still kinda cheesy. The springs feel good and don’t bottom now with the driveline in so it *should* work.

The trans mount I have on the shelf already (just put a post on q&a but didn’t learn much) fits on tbe studs of the 727 with a rubber cube underneath, then a small stud pointing down. My motor and trans are located pretty well front to back (already having my driveshaft shortened) and the little mounting stud hits the rear flat of my existing dakota trans crossmember. Measuring the pinion of the rear I came up with 1.75” offset to the passenger side so I’m thinking I’ll just drill a hole to locate the trans mount, drop it in and verify my driveshaft is straight, then go about getting the front of the motor lined up in front of it. After the front is mounted it will be easy enough to shim up the trans mount or build a box and sink it into the crossmember if my driveline angle needs adjustment.

I’ve come so far and need to go so much farther! I’ve still been uploading a ton of pics on the flathead site- link in above posts.