It was time to cover the dash mess.
Pic 1, This mess! A few things to take note of. The instrument cluster is mounted in a bracket that is attached to the brake pedal reinforcement bracket just above the steering column. This cluster mounting bracket is made from sheet metal, and copies the original Dakota plastic bracket. I would have used the Dakota bracket, but the side towards the door would have interfered with he window crank, and by the time I would have cut clearance, There would not have been enough strength left in the plastic to support the cluster. As it is constructed, the column can drop, the cluster can be removed with 4 screws, and the cluster bracket can be removed with 4 screws. The black piece just below the windshield is the intact Dakota defroster duct. It actually sat perfectly in that position. The white box attached to the bottom of the defroster duct is an extension I added to meet up with the ducting for the heater box. The rusty looking bar across the bottom of the dash with all the wires drooped across it is the modified Dakota lower dash piece. Its hard to tell from this pic, but that green foam square on the heater box is just about the center of the truck. The white box on the defroster duct connects with a piece that shifts about 3" to the left to align up with the defroster duct. The heat control switch panel will sit under the right side of the instrument cluster, and the right side ends up about 4" to the right side of the instrument cluster. There is nearly 5" between the heater box and the lower dash support piece.
Pic 2, This might not look like much, but it took nearly 2 days to get this piece to this point! The top triangle piece is actually the top of the dash cover. It was originally made from two pieces of cardboard, a right side (not in this picture) and this left side. The 1st design had the the two pieces jointing at the center, but that didn't work out so well. What you are looking at was probably the 3rd design, and is not the finished design, but pretty close, lots of cardboard died to get to this point. The top of the triangle sets against the windshield framework. The slots are where the defroster duct meets from underneath. The red piece surround the top of the instrument cluster. It is built from 3 separate pieces welded together. It sits down over the top of the instrument cluster. In the final configuration, the area that is tack welded is screwed together. I couldn't get the pieces inside the truck when everything was welded together. The top piece is separate from the instrument cluster cover.
Pic 3, This is the left side of the instrument cluster. The 3 switches in the inset level are for the OD switch on the right side, the power remote mirrors on the right side (no longer present), and the headlight switch at the bottom. The round tube sticking through the panel is the Dakota's door window defroster. In the original Dakota dash, all of theses three switches would have been on the same level as the instrument cluster and the side glass defroster would have come through the side of the dash, but all of that would have been in the path of the window elevation crank. There are 3 separate panels here, the side of the instrument cluster is part of the cluster cover. The panel below the instrument cluster goes across under the cluster to the other side of the steering column, and the remaining sheet metal is the 3rd panel. You can see the fuse panel behind the left side dash cover.
Pic 4, The big red box on the right side is the glove box. The back of it is about 3/4" out from the heater box. You can see the basic shape of the dash cover here. The unpainted sheet metal lip above the glove box got 5 screws across the lip to connect the top panel to the glove box. The glove box and the red panel under it are all one piece and is mounted to the lower dash structure which you can see on the lower right corner of the pic. The area between the glove box and the steering column was not completed at this time because there is more stuff that had to be added under the dash cover, the right end cap was also not completed at this time.