Gene,
I want to stay with a wood bed in the truck even though I will drop a few inches from the swap. The tank on the truck is cracked but I am going to use it to see if I can fab a gas tube to use the original gas cap on the cab and if i can I'll just get a new dakota tank. The dakota I got has the 8 foot bed too so I will have to play around with the bed mounts but I think once I get the frame stripped and start mocking up the new body and cab it will help. I think I was trying to put the cart before the horse and if I need to remove those front box mounts or reposition them I will be able to get a better idea once I set the cab on it. I plan to use the 8 1/4 rear end that came in the dakota so I will have to workout fitting the tires in the wheel wells too. This just gets better and better!