That was how the front sheet metal was bolted together. Now we should cover how the sheet metal was attached to the cab.
Pic 1, The little horizontal "L" shaped plate bolted to the side of the firewall at the center of this pic is the primary mounting bracket for the fender. Those plates have a little movement up and down or forward and backward. The adjusting bolts are inside of the cab and the bolt threads into these brackets. There is a bracket on the fender that sits on top of this bracket. Two bolts come up from the bottom, pass through the two bolt holes and thread into the brackets on the fender. The only other mounting point for the fenders is the hole in the cab mount bracket that is welded to the frame. You can see that hole just forward of the lower part of the door, just below the inverted V shaped indentation on the side of the firewall with the black paint blob. That great rust repair was from whom ever the guy was (not me) that welded the plate on the cab floor. Its not pretty, but its not going anywhere.
Pic 2, This is the inside of the fender, back by the door. The top of the fender is at the top of the pic. This is the driver side fender. The block looking thing at the top of the fender is the part that sits on the horizontal "L" bracket on the side of the firewall. The two holes visible at the bottom of that bracket are the holes you screw the bolts into. That bracket is riveted to the fender, and the fenders often rust through at the contact point of the bracket to the fender. The long bracket bolted to the door end of the fender is the other fender support. This piece bolts onto the fender flange that is between the fender and the door. This bracket can be bolted to either side of the truck, to two holes on the side of the bracket would bolt to the other fender and are not used on this fender. There are two holes on the bottom flange of this bracket. The hole farthest from the outer fender face is the hole that the bolt would pass through for the cab mount bracket. The other bottom hole would be used if this bracket was mounted to the other fender and is not used on this fender. That indentation in the side of the firewall is there so the bracket clears the firewall. Just to the right of the upper fender mount you can see a pair of holes in the fender flange. There are 6 holes, evenly spaced across that flange that extends all the way to the front panel. The two holes at the back of the flange are used to bolt the hood latches to, as are the front two holes. All 6 holes are used to bolt the inner fender to the outer fender. I've not ever seen a pair of those inner fenders bolted in place that were not damaged or missing completely. The smaller holes in the flange from the larger holes going rearward towards the door end of the fender are to hold a rubber lip seal. That seal bridges about a 3/8" to a 1/2" gap between the cab and the fender. I've not seen any of those intact either. You can buy replacement pieces, but they don't fit very well.

Just so you get the correct picture, the primary fender mounting bracket is attached to the side of the firewall on a rubber mounted cab, but the bottom bracket is bolted to a frame mounted bracket. One can move, the other can't. Up in the front, the fender is bolted to the front panel, and it is bolted to the radiator support, which is bolted solidly to the frame. Both ends of these fenders, and around the riveted fender to body mounting point tend to crack and tear. Any one else wonder why? For the record, all the fender mounting bolts are a pain in the butt to thread in.

Pic 3, Moving on. Its should be pretty obvious I can not use the original radiator support. The crossmember it would have bolted to on the original frame is not present on the Dakota frame. The Dakota radiator support was rubber mounted, and used the large hole at the end of each frame rail. There is a rubber bushing in each of those two holes in this pic, those holes are just forward of the piece of tubing laying across the the ends of the frame rails. The radiator has to be positioned directly above where the tubing is sitting. The ends of those frame rails were cut off to in order to set the fenders and front panel on the truck for the mock up, Yep. its that close!