Very COOL truck, they make a great rod project

this is just my opinion, I have had a few cars and trucks with an axel, and I have had well over 30 cars with and independent frontend and the independent frontends handle and brake WAYYYYYYY better, again "just my opinon"
I would go with an independent frontend if it was my truck...
I had a volare' frontend on my 36 dodge humpback, I did that back around 1978 because I wanted my mopar to be all mopar, it drove and handeled fantastic, it was one of the first aspen/volare frontend put under a rod back then.
the only problem I had with it was I could not lower it as far down as I would have liked, because it is a little wide for an early rod.
If you go with the stock frame I would use a Mustang II style frontend like the ones from fatman.
the dakota chassis swap works good under most cars and trucks because they are a full frame chassis and not a unibody like all our other mopars, again you need to watch the width of the dakota and be carefull with wheel offset on the front.
we are doing 3 dakota frame swaps right now,
one is under a 46 dodge PU
one will be under a 42 COE
and we plan to put a 47 dodge panal truck on one.
I want these to work out and everything looks good so far but If I had to widen the front fenders to make it work then thats what I would do.
the COE and the panal truck will have the complete drivetrain in then ,5.2 efi engine and OD transmission so it will be just like driving a dakota but just a different body on it Ron..