Thanks Andy, I was hoping you would take the time to really look through this thread.

Many people are fed the line that a Dakota swap under an old truck is easy, it is not. Any time you take a modern chassis and put it under old sheet metal, a lot of work is involved. What I can tell you is that at least the 88-96 Dakota frame is much more easy to put under an old body then many other frame options. The straight, level frame rails between the front and rear suspension solve a lot of problems most curved parameter frames have. The S10 and the Chevy Colorado frames are a pain to fit under most lode vehicles, nothing is straight.

Concerning the door handles on my 49. Up until 52 (or 53) a driver side key in the door lock did not exist. The only exterior key lock was on the passenger side door. It was considered a safety feature to not stand on the street to unlock and enter a vehicle back then. Another issue is the way the original door latches kept the doors closed. The door latches were a wedge shaped bar on the post that engaged a retractable spring loaded wedge shaped part that protruded through the door. Those two wedges sliding against each other and the flat edges against each other is the only thing that kept the door closed. Then there was a male & female wedge shaped pair, one part on the door post and the other on the door are what kept the door aligned in the up and down plane. Any wear on any of the wedges, if there was any wear on one or both door hinges a big bump to pop the door open. That happened a lot as the trucks (and cars) aged. The modern post and closing style claw are so much better at securing the door.
Another determining factor on my truck was that all the door parts on the inside and the outside on my doors was junk.
I did end up installing electric door locks because there wasn't enough door thickness for the Dakota door key lock to function without hitting the glass. The original latch mechanism would not have worked with the electric door locks even if mine would have been good.

There was some discussion about an outside fresh air source for the HVAC system on Dabee's post, and I have pictures of how I did mine. I thought my pictures should be on my truck build rather then on his. Probably going to take a couple posts to cover the pictures, so I'll start on this post.

Pic 1 is the opening I cut in the cowl For reference, the hood sits on top of the black rubber strip when its closed. When the hood is closed, the top end is about 3/4" below the underside of the hood. This area has the potential to be wet from water running under the hood seal. You can see a built up top, and both sides of the cowl opening. the ledge below the hole is a factory rain gutter. The bottom of the hole is an inch above the top of the rain gutter.
Pic 2 This is looking down inside the hole. The duct work around the hole you see is very light gauge (22 gauge I believe) and it is formed from two pieces, the top section and the bottom section. The two pieces are pretty much wedged into place and attach with a screw on each side, are bolted to the fresh air inlet duct on the Dakota HVAC box with its original mounting hardware. The original Dakota had a plastic piece that sat where this sits. The hole at the bottom is the actual Dakota HVAC box. The two blue screws only hold the cover on through the summer months.
Pic 3 shows another view of the opening. The actual HVAC box is about 3" lower then the bottom of the hole, and the closest part of the HVAC box opening is about 6" more inward then the firewall.
Pic 4 is the removed door, as it would sit over the hole. I'll bet you can't guess where those two blue screws in the last 2 pic went. Those two screws are all that hol the door in place. I added it because in the summer a lot of warm air comes through the hole from the engine compartment. Fpr the record, as the motor warms up in the winter, a lot of warm air comes through that hole as well. It is a bit cool before the motor starts warming up (about 5 minutes after start up @ 25 degrees).