Things were going pretty well until it was time to try on the hood. It went down hill from there.

So the hood mounting on these trucks is another interesting operation. The center of the hood is the entire hood support. There is a single rear bracket that is spot welded to the hood center. That bracket extends out below, and towards the sides where it bolts to the top of the firewall. The front of the hood has a similar bracket, but it bolts to a separate piece that bolts to the front panel. The piece that bolts to the front panel that came on my truck was not the correct part, I think someone got that part from a Chevy truck that is close, but fits incorrectly. The next issue with the hood center is it has a curved front end that drops several inches lower then the rear of that center piece. The hood center is fully formed sheet metal. The two hood sides hang off the canter piece. They are also fully formed sheet metal, but the size of each side makes each side pretty heavy. Too heavy for the center to support. The center piece tends to crack across the top surface. There are no hinges for the side panels, Dodge used the rolled sheet metal of the hood sides to form the hinge, but that rolled edge does not continue around the curved center piece which compounds the fatigue for the center piece. I have added a 1/2" round bar stock onto each side of the hood center that extends from the rear mounting bracket to the front mounting bracket. Then I usually have to weld the cracked sheet metal, and often straighten the bent hood center. Just to make things more fun, the center piece does not curve all the way down to the front panel. there is a gap of about 2" between the top of the front panel and the bottom of the hood center and both hood sides. Dodge added a chrome filler piece on the 48-50 models The 51 to 53 the hood center and the front panel met without the filler piece. Of course, I didn't have that filler piece either. Those pieces are available, but are pricy.
Pic 1, Front sheet metal bolted at the rear of the fenders, and blocked up into position. Radiator clamped into position.
Pic 2, As low as it can mount and have the top hose clear the fan. The hood can't come down any more, its almost in contact with the radiator cap at this point.
Pic 3, There is 3/4" between the radiator and the fan, the radiator can't move forward any more, I already had to trim the corner of the fender.
pic 4, Screwed! I can cut the angle iron off, but the right side (left side of the pic) of the radiator won't let the hood come closed. See that black line on the sheet metal under the hood center? That is the highest the hood center can be, its an inch too high.

I ended up cutting the top 8" off of the Dakota radiator support, then I could use the it and the original Dakota radiator. I had to create a new method to hold the top of the radiator in position, because originally it was bolted to the part I had to cut off the top of the radiator support. The Dakota radiator had to be in an exact location or it wouldn't clear the hood corners either. Then the radiator fill was under the hood center and the hood had to be removed to add coolant. I did have a recovery bottle, but the upper radiator hose was above the top of the radiator. I did add an in hose filler, but it didn't work very well. The whole deal was boarder line functional.
But the truck had a radiator that held coolant, and the hood closed, keep moving forward. Gene

As the progress is moving forward, the big things were captured on film, but pretty much daily, little things were also going on. As we progress through this build, some of the pictures are not accurate for the events going on, but may better illustrate things that I feel need to be explained.

The progress of the build had a specific plan, and the time frames were pretty tight. This build was very unusual in that there the biggest loss of progress was waiting for parts. During those days that meant the parts would be here the week after they were ordered. Very little time was lost waiting for parts, because there was so much that had to be done, the work would just shift to a different part of the project. The things that normally get in the way of a build progress were just non-existent. The biggest usual problem, the money, was taken care of when the 39 pickup sold. The next biggest problem, the time to work, was taken care of, I had just retired. The next biggest problem was equipment and work space, again, I'd just retired, my welding shop and everything in it was available. There were a few distractions because of commitments, or helping a few friends, but those were pretty limited to a week or two of lost time, and some of that was because sometimes I just needed a break from this truck to refresh.

The nature of my shop is that there was more work space and better lighting if whatever I was working on was near the garage door. If need be, I could put stuff outside to have more work space. That would mean if i wanted to work on the front of the truck, the front end needed to be towards the garage door, but if I needed to work on the rear of the truck, the rear end needed to be towards the garage door. Once you get about 10' out of my garage, the driveway goes up hill slightly. If the truck doesn't move under its own power, you either push it up the hill, or you hook a chain on it and pull it up the hill. The driveway is 88' long, and 19' wide. The highest point in the drive is at the mid point of its length, then it goes down hill to the street (or down hill towards the garage), about a 4' total drop in either direction. That high point in the driveway is about even with the front of my house, which sits about 4' from the the east edge of the driveway. On the west side of the driveway is 75' of fairly level yard, but there is a transition between the cement drive and the grass. You do not easily push a vehicle over that transition. A 19' wide wide driveway is not quite wide enough to turn a vehicle around without jockeying it around a few times. What all this translates to is, getting the truck to move under its own power was a pretty high priority.

I used the 96 EFI system, so there are a bunch of wires that runs forward of the firewall for all the lighting and engine electronics, a computer to support, and an under hood fuse box. The Dakota also mounted the battery under the hood, something there is little room for where you could get access to. There was also new brake lines to run, brake hoses to replace, and brakes to rebuild. I needed new fuel lines, exhaust, and I had to shorten the drive shaft. Then inside of the cab there is a steering column to mount, an instrument cluster to mount, the heat/ac to refresh the heater core and the evaporator (If I might want AC in the future). There is a very large bundle of wiring that goes across the dash, a fuse box to mount and that other computer to mount. I needed to connect the steering, the trans shift linkage, and figure out how to get a functioning brake pedal in the cab. Then I needed a seat, and a way to open the truck door from inside. All that before the truck would be able move under its own power. Much of the wiring was able hang from zip ties until I could have something more permanent to mount it to, if I have something to zip tie to. Much of this stuff was temporally attached so the truck could move on its own and was addressed at a later date as a larger, more sweeping updated modification took place.
Then, there was no glass at all in the truck (glass and just the rubber around it is $1000, but fortunately all of it was available new!) Nothing inside of the doors functioned except one outside door handle (the other outside handle sort of worked). With all the exposed computers and wiring, this meant that the truck couldn't really sit outside very long, threatening weather would have been a disaster.

If anyone is interested, I took pictures of how I shortened the drive shaft. I've done a bunch of this in my shop over the years, and have never had a problem, but I know there would be those that would whine it wasn't done correctly. That is OK, most of them already don't approve of this project. I'll drive mine, they can seek perfection for their ride. Gene

Great build thread, thank you very much for taking the time to post.

Thank you.

I've stated 100s of times that a person has to know what they want their vehicle to do or be so they can build it to meet their expectations. This truck has 2 specific goals.

#1, Its going to be my primary winter driver (we have ice, snow, and they heavily salt the roads here). It will need to survive under those conditions. There is a reason it is a functioning 4x4 truck.

#2, I want a cool old truck to drive. If I can get 15 years out of it, it will probably outlast my driving time. I really don't care what shape it will be in when I get done with it.

Those goals place some pretty hard challenges on this build process. The things some people feel are important are not with me, and some very important things that others wouldn't bother with really need to be done with this truck. The last installment I had a functioning radiator and radiator support, but the front sheet metal was propped up on cement blocks and wood. Can't really drive it like that, so the next step was to attach the sheet metal to the radiator support. Unfortunately, I don't have any really good pictures of that radiator support, so you get to see a few mixed up pictures that should give you the picture of what that looked like.
Pic 1, You have seen this one already. A few other things I want to point out. The headlights in this era of trucks (and cars) are mounted to the front sheet metal by the use of headlight buckets that were screwed to the fender, head light assembly, or in this case, the front panel. Usually, the back side of those buckets resided in the wheel well and were not protected from road debris or things like the salt used on current roads during the winter. Usually those buckets received a lot of damage over the years, and finding good replacements is difficult. Its is kind of hard to see, but the passenger side of the front panel on my truck was damaged at some point in time (probably the same time the roof got damaged). That damage has distorted the opening in the front panel, and probably destroyed the headlight bucket on that side of the truck. I only had one headlight bucket. For a Dodge truck, used replacement headlight bucket runs $100 each, when you can find them. In my case, even if I found one, the opening is so distorted, it wouldn't fit anyway. Then I wasn't real happy about the idea of no protection for the bucket or the front panel, given this truck would see a lot of winter driving.
One more thing I want to point out from this picture is inside of the grille opening, beside the aluminum radiator on the left side (of the pic). You can see a sheet metal panel standing vertically behind the front panel. If you look, you can see a vertical row of 3 bolt holes on each side of the grille opening, the side on the left of the picture has a bolt in the top and the bottom hole. That original panel you see through the grille opening was bolted to the front panel and that was bolted to the radiator support to hold the front panel on the truck (there is a piece like this on each side of the radiator).

About the time I was pondering how I was going to do this, my son conned me into going to the nearest LKQ pull a part to help him find stuff for his project. I was looking for seats for the 49. What I found was a modern CJ Jeep. Interestingly enough, I discovered the headlights in that Jeep were mounted on plastic buckets that were bolted to a flat panel behind the bucket. Those plastic buckets had the adjusting screws attached, and the headlights were the same size as the headlights in my truck. $7.50 bought both headlight buckets, and all the mounting hardware. I didn't see any reason I couldn't do the same setup in my truck. It would protect and mount the headlight, make it adjustable, and protect the front panel sheet metal in one step with modern stuff I can still buy.

Pic 2, I reversed the order, sorry. #2 shows the flat sheet metal behind the headlight opening in the front panel. That piece of sheet metal is a separate piece then the new sheet metal shown inside of the grille opening. The piece inside the grille opening is a replacement for the original piece that was there. All 3 vertical bolts hold that piece to the front panel. There is a similar piece on the other side of the grille opening. At the bottom of the grille opening you can see the original bottom filler panel bolted in place. Those bolts are all 1/4" bolts in original holes in the front panel. Originally those were probably screw head bolts, and would have been covered by either chrome or painted grille bars. On the vertical piece you can see it is plug welded to a black painted part, that part is the original lower section of the Dakota radiator support. Both sides and the bottom pieces bolted to the front panel and are all welded to the radiator support.
Pic 3, This probably should have been posted 1st, but anyway. This is the best picture of the radiator support and the headlight inner cover. Of course, this pic is the inside of the drivers side of the front panel, with the fender off. The vertical piece with the formed holes just to the right of center is the Dakota radiator support. The radiator mounting bushing that is used to bolt this through the hole in the frame is on the front side of that structure, and the bottom section wraps around to the other side. The headlight cover is formed sheet metal that is about 2" inside of the outer surface of the front panel, that is the depth of the plastic headlight holding bracket. That keeps the headlight in pretty much the original depth as the original Dodge truck was. That headlight panel is also welded to the radiator support. At the very top of the picture you can see bolts screwed into same holes that the fender uses to bolts to the front panel. The fender mounting bolts sandwich this sheet metal between the fender and the front panel.
Pic 4, This pic was taken much later, but it shows what the bottom of the radiator support looks like from the top. The two holes towards the right of the pic are where rubber plugs sat in those holes and the plastic studs from the radiator fit into the rubber. The top of the radiator was held down to keep the studs engaged into the holes.

Just a couple pictures of the upper radiator mounting. These pictures are much later in the build, but make things pretty clear I think.
Pic 1, Remember way back when I told you how the front of the hood bolted to a piece that bolted to the top of the front panel and the part I had was wrong? Here is a pic of the part I made to accomplish the task, without the hood in place. This piece appears to be just sheet metal, but there are several pieces of 1/8" x 1" bar stock under it for reinforcing. The 4 bolts at the front connect it to the front panel. Those 4 bolts are all there is to keep everything together. Originally, this piece would have been stamped sheet metal, but it would not have been used to support the radiator like it does now. The original radiator was bolted to the radiator support that was bolted to the frame. The two formed channels are the brackets the front hood support bolt to. There is an 1/8" x 1" bar stock with a piece of rubber glued to the bottom that sits on top of the plastic radiator tank on each side that holds the radiator in place.
Pic 2 Shows the same area with the hood bolted in place. I should point out the original gap between the hood center and both sides have had a piece of metal welded over to fill the gap. This quick fill job will be addressed later.
Pic 3, This pic shows the back side of the radiator hold down on the driver side.
Pic 4, This is what the original gap between the hood pieces and the front panel looked like, as you can see, I had just started filling the gap in this pic. I did buy an original chrome piece to fill that gap. The chrome piece I bought didn't fit well at all, the distance between the hood center and the corner of the hood on both sides was off nearly a 1/2" and the way it had to be mounted would have been a major undertaking to make work. Had the part fit will, I probably would have made the bracket to bolt it on, but since the part fit so poorly, I made the decision to fill the opening by welding on sheet metal. Gene

With the front sheet metal attached to the frame, its time to move on. The brake pedal and steering column need to be supported. Since I'm using the Dakota firewall, the holes are already present for the Dakota stuff to bolt in place at the firewall, however the brake pedal and steering column in a Dakota are also supported by the dash frame. You understand that the Dakota dash frame does not exist in this truck. Realizations had to be met, and modifications had to be made.
The 1st realization that had to be met was the original 49 dash had to go. It was in the wrong location, and was frankly, in the way. That decision was easy, I didn't have any original instrumentation, and it would not have matched up to the current drivetrain and electrical systems even if I had them. I would need to leave enough of the original dash to screw a new one to around the windshield. Everything else was open. I added reinforcing to the upper part of the cowl that would connect to the Dakota steering and brake bracket, and then build a piece that would become the lower dash brace. Once the 49's dash was out of the way, that was much easier then I expected. Things like a new dash and instrument cluster could be worked out as necessities were accounted for.
With the column and pedal support figured out, the realization occurred to me that I should insulate the firewall before I bolted the steering and brake pedal in place. I purchased a product called NOICO off Amazon. it is a butyl material with an adhesive side and a foil backing. Its an .080 thick insulation and sound deadener that is fairly easy to work with. You cut it to the shape you need with a utility knife, peal the backing off and stick it into place, then roll out the foil backing flat. I've used it before, its very effective. I like the NOICO stuff because the foil backing comes in either silver or black, and isn't covered with advertising. If I can't cover it up right away it still looks great. I pay the couple more bucks and get the black foil. This may sound counter productive, but several years ago I discovered that painting stuff under the dash white makes working under there much easier. I applied the black foil backed NOICO to my firewall, then painted it white, but the entire firewall took less then 1/4 of the box.
Pic 1, The inside of the firewall, covered with the NOICO and painted white (notice the white paint job doesn't have to be great to be effective).
Pic 2, The steering column and brake pedal back in place (not completely bolted up, probably a photo opp. Also notice the NOICO covers the floor back to the seat riser (that part is still black)
Pic 3, The firewall with the heat/ac box bolted in. It got really cluttered after that. The inside computer was hung on the passenger side kick panel. The under dash fuse panel was hung on the left side of the steering column, and the under dash wiring was draped through. With lots of stuff hanging from zip ties, and a seat through in, the truck could drive to the street, turn around, and drive back into the garage.
Pic 4, This is a later pic, but gives you an idea how busy it got under the dash. More was added after this pic was taken! Gene

The door handle fix. When I got the truck, the outside door handle on the driver side worked pretty good, both opening it and latching it closed again, but in 49 Dodge didn't have an outside door lock available for the driver's door, even as an option. There was no handle on the inside, but with a crescent wrench clamped onto the lever, it would sort of move, would unlatch the door, but then you had to force the lever the other way for it to latch again. On the passenger side, you could turn the outside handle, but had to really jerk the door to open it or slam it hard to close. Sometimes it would latch, sometimes it wouldn't. I spent many hours straightening out the bent door frame and the roof section above that door. The door would swing better and not bind up anymore, but the latch was still temperamental about latching or unlatching. To make things worse, the door latches were both the old wedges that latched against other wedges. Those style latches tended to let the doors get jarred open on rough roads. I had these Dakota modern latches and and posts just sitting there, and I've done this before. The key locks on the Dakota door handles even matched the ignition key. Out with the old, in with the new, except it isn't exactly that easy.
Pic 1, Two important things about this pic, 1 this is the widest part of the door. Its important because the Dakota door is wider then the 49's door, for the Dakota latch to work, it needs to be located in the widest point on the door. 2, this picture shows the original latch system. The top wedge (just above the center of the pic at the inner edge of the door) is the latch itself. When the handle is turned, this wedge retracts inside of the door. To latch again, it needs to come completely back out. As the right side of the edge piece wears off, the worst it will latch. The bottom wedge (facing sideways near the small round hole in the door) is the alignment wedge. It is what is suppose to keep the door from bouncing up or down so the latching wedge keeps engaged with its matching part on the door post. The small hole in the door frame is for access to remove the set screw for the door lock (this is the passenger door, and the only door lockable).
Pic 2, This pictures shows both the door latch matching parts. The double wedge piece is the part the latch wedge locks against. The 1st step (on the left) would be the "emergency latch, which would not close the door tight, the second step is the primary latch which would hold the door tightly closed. The small indentation at the bottom of the pic is the slot for the alignment wedge to slide into. These two pictures are my passenger side door, the hole in the sheet metal between the two latch pieces on the door post is where someone ripped the metal trying to pull the door frame back in place.
Pic 3, The rest of these pictures are from the driver side of the truck. I already had the latch stuff cut out of this door before I thought about taking pictures. The door latch is held in position with 3 screws. None of then came out even with an impact screw remover. This is how much of the door had to be cut out to get the old latch assembly out. The channel you see running up and down through the inside of the door is the window track. The old latch occupied space on both sides of the window track, and the Dakota latch will have to do the same. The glass would be on the other side of the channel from this viewpoint, which is looking at the edge of the door.
Pic 4, This is the same cut out viewed from the inside of the door, again, the window track is the channel inside of the door (the glass would be on the right side of the window track). The large hole with the small hole close by would be where the outside door latch came through the outside door skin, the small hole was for the handle mounting screw.

Door latch
Pic 1, This is a Dakota door latch as it would sit inside of the door. You can't see, but on the edge that would be facing my hand are 3 mounting screws that hold this part to the door. To replace this part on a Dakota, you need to remove the window and the window track, then the connecting rods then the three screws, and turn it with just the right combination of turns to get it out of the door.
Pic 2, This is how you have to get it in this door.
Pic 3, This is the Dakota latch in the 49 door. The window track limits its position. Notice how much wider it is then the door width is? A piece of sheet metal needs to be formed, and that extra width has to be accommodated for. Modifications on the door post for clearance may be needed.
Pic 4, Lots of rods going lots of places, each serving a purpose. They need to be connected properly for the latch to function correctly. Fortunately they are color coded. I wrote myself a note.

Door latch cont.
Pic 1, The inside sheet metal patch. The area inside of the black marker will be cut out. Viewed from the door edge.
Pic 2, Same piece, different angle, again, the area inside of the black marker will be cut out. Viewed from inside of the door.
Pic 3, The cut out has been done, the mounting holes for the latch have been drilled and the latch has been screwed into place. I'm hoping the screws will hold the latch in place well enough. If it does, If I ever have to change the latch, I can do so without removing the glass. This is viewed from the door edge.
Pic 4, As viewed from inside of the door. That lever with the light green clip is for the inside door lock. A rod will connect to it to unlock the door from inside of the truck.

Door latch cont.
Pic 1, Door post time. With the latch not attached to the door, its time to locate the latch post on the door jam. The process is, you close the door mostly closed, and mark the door jam at the center of the opening where the post would enter the latch opening. You want to do this carefully because it has to be pretty close. You want to be sure you are looking at the center of the opening pretty level to the opening. On this door jam, the post was going to be pretty close to where the original door alignment wedge was located. I didn't want to have issues, so I removed the entire area around the alignment wedge. If you look at the outer edge of the door jam, you can see my black mark that locates the center of the post location just above the cut out area.
Pic 2, There are two critical things that need to be done before this point. You need to know the height of the post location, and you also need to know how far the post needs to be from the outer surface of the sheet metal. Because of the extra thickness of the door due to the latch position, you want to be sure the door closes even with the door jam sheet metal without making contact with the door frame. That would be a simple matter of pushing the door closed and being sure the outer door sheet metal is even or slightly below the level of the outside sheet metal on the door jam. it is easier to make that needed clearance right now then it ever will be again. The door post has threads on the end that goes inside of the door jam. generally there is a large washer base at the end of the post as well. that large washer is so a larger diameter hole can be drilled in the sheet metal so there is some adjustment of the post. If you have access to the back side of the door jam, like this truck has, you can simply stick the post through the hole, and add a large washer on the inside, and tighten up a nut against the washers. If there is not access to the back side you will need to make a bracket with a captured nut. I thought I had pictures of that, but I do not. i will look for some or make an example and add the pictures of them to this thread. this picture is pretty much the end result.
Pic 3. The outside of the door. This piece is the sheet metal that surrounds the opening for the outside door handle from a Dakota pickup.
Pic 4, This is what the back side of that piece looks like. I use an actual piece because it locates the handle on the outside with the indentation around the handle and the inside edges help locate the handle on the door skin. Because this part located the handle, its most important that the handle is located the proper distance from the door edge. You want to keep it pretty close to the original spacing on your door as it was on the Dakota. That keeps things in line better. There is some adjustment on the length of the rod that releases the latch, but if its out of that adjustment range, you need to start bending the rods, and that becomes a major pain pretty quickly. Sometimes the location on the door for the handle is dictated by the door itself, then there is little option then to adjust the rod lengths.

-Outside door handle cont.
Pic 1, Once the location is determined, mark the hole out on the door and cut it out. I like to use a cut off wheel.
Pic 2, I usually make the 1st cut a little small.
Pic 3, Then its fine tuned. Its easier for me to sneak up on he hole size.
Pic 4, With the hole cut to size, I make sure the latch rods are close, if OK, then I weld it up. Then its a matter of connecting the rods.

So I got the handle in the truck and it worked great, until I installed the door glass. When the door glass is up, the outside lock lever makes contact with the glass before it can lift enough to lock the door. If the window is down, it works great. I pulled the lock out for now. I've purchased a remote lock that I will probably install in the spring. About that best laid plans thing... At least the doors open and close great. Gene

Perfect situation. Sounds like you are good to go. Keep thrashing on that truck and have fun

i have been saying all along Gene is the Dak Expert, and this post proves it !

Thank you Sir, for taking the time to post this !

the adaptation of the dak's door latches and handles to your pilot house truck can be used as a guide to do the same on lots of early vehicles.
in fact, i am in the process of doing the same thing to the doors of my 33 humpback.
it uses basically the same latch system as Gene's truck, and the doors are similar in thickness.
the "post in the door jam" system was used for many years in quite a variety of Chrysler products, so finding a good latching system for early doors is easy to come by.
use Gene's pictures as a guide, as this method will work great in many years of 1930's-up, hot rods.

the door latch portion of this build thread is worth it's weight in gold, as it can be used in more than pilot house trucks !
Thanks Again Gene !

Thanks guys.

The door latch post has been bugging me since I posted it. A lot of the stuff that used to be around here is now gone, but I think I've found enough stuff to give you the idea how that set up would work. i've got 8 pictures, and your are going to have to go along with some things being different then they are.
Pic 1, This is what is called a captured nut. The solid square block has a hole that is threaded for the correct bolt size. That nut sits with in the sheet metal cage. The 4 ears that were cut off would have had a cross strap at the top of the cage, and another cross strap at the bottom of the cage, and would have held the nut in place so it couldn't turn, but could shift around.
Pic 2, This is what the underside of the nut and the cage look like. Notice how large the square hole is? The bolt or post would pass through that square hole and thread into the block. Until the bolt was tightened, it could "float" around in the square hole, which would be the adjustment this caged nut would have. The amount of adjustment is limited by the size of the hole (it doesn't have to be square), and how much movement the nut has available in the cage.
Pic 3, Pretend this sanding disc is a piece of 18 gauge or 20 gauge sheet metal. The nut cage is usually attached to the back side of this sheet metal, with the holes centered on each other. This metal could be your door post, or a piece of metal you are adding.
Pic 4, Pretend that this is the post bolt, and it has the same threads as the captured nut. Also pretend that there are more threads (of the correct size) on the end of the bolt. The real bolt would also have the step up from the thread size, like this bolt has. The large outer diameter washer has the hole in it that won't go past the step up on the bolt. That step up that stops the washer movement from going up on the bolt is what tightens everything together. You would loosen the bolt, move the post to the position as needed for your adjustment, then tighten the bolt so the washer holds everything tight. Often there are 2-3 washers stacked up under the bolt step. Those extra washers are used to set how deep the post intrudes into the door. The head of the bolt enters into the cut slot on the door latch, and the latch jaws lock onto the bolt shaft. The head is inside of the latch so the jaws can't slide off the end of the bolt. Because of the way its set up, the bolt has to be long enough for the head to clear the jaws, but it also has to be short enough it doesn't make contact with the door itself. That stack of washers determines how far into the door the bolt head goes, more washers, the head goes deeper, less washers and the head gets closer to the jaws.
Sometimes when you are building from scratch, or repairing a torn out post, the depth of the bolt into the door becomes critical. You can stack as many washers as you need, as long as there are enough threads left on the bolt to screw into the captured nut, or you can reduce the number down until there is only one washer left, but there has to be at least one washer.
One more note of importance, the outside diameter of the washer has to cover the hole in the sheet metal. Gene

door post cont
Pic 1, So this fuzzy pic is your door post (technically its the striker bolt), if it was the real thing, the threads on the back side of the washer extend about 3/4" to 1" past, and that would be after there were 2-3 washers there. Those individual washers are probably not as thick as this one is.
Pic 2, This is sort of what the captured nut would look like when attached to the sheet metal on the back side of your door jam. When you are ready to put this in place, the hole in the door jam has to be big enough to fit the captured nut and its cage in so the sheet metal sits flat against the jam.
Pic 3, This would be what you see when you are ready to install the post bracket. When its correct, the threaded nut should be able to float around in pretty much the entire inside hole. The larger washer on the post pulls the nut up against the metal to lock everything tight. When its time to weld, you would be welding only around the outside of the sheet metal (the sanding disc). As one would expect, you want that sheet metal to be tight against the metal you are welding to. Another note here is the outside configuration of the sheet metal can be any shape that fits your door jam, you just want to be sure the door can be closed all the way, so the large washer has to be able to clear anything that might limit its movement, once its welded into place.
One more thought, I use this set up to repair a lot of ripped out striker bolts (because the door hinge bushings have been wore out, and the people keep slamming the door until the post rips out of the jam). I have found that if you screw the post into the nut snug, you can use the post to position the sheet metal in place, and you can hang your welder ground on the post. With the post screwed in, you don't have to be concerned about a weld bb messing up the nut threads, just loosen the bolt before the weld cools.
Just for the record, if you are repairing a striker post that has been ripped out because of worn hinge bushings, be sure the bushings are repaired, or the new sheet metal will tear out within 2 weeks again. If you can lift the handle end of an open door more then 1/8",and feel it slop up and down, the hinges need to be repaired.
Pic 4, A side view of what the striker post and the captured nut and cage look like from the side. Gene

Back on the truck.
The time had come for the glass installation, there are 2 corner windows, a back center window, and a 2 piece front glass the goes in this truck in addition to 2 vent windows and 2 roll up windows in the doors. All the glass came from Bob's Classic Auto Glass, primarily because he had just had a run made of brand new corner windows. The corner windows are not easy to find, they only fit the 48-53 truck cabs, and then they were an option. Good used corner windows were going for $200+ a pair, when you could find them. Bob was selling brand new corner windows for $200 for a pair, and you could get them in clear (which most of the factory glass was), or you could get a green tine, or a smoke tint for no extra cost. Add to that, the tinted glass had the tinting between the two safety glass pieces. All the other glass could also be tinted to match (again, the tint was between the two layers of glass, not applied over either the inside or the outside) all the glass except the two corner windows (which sold separately) cost $365. Shipping for all the glass was $25! The glass other then the corner windows is all flat glass, I priced it out from he local guy I've been buying my flat glass from for over 20 years, and his price was almost $500, without the corner glass. I (bought the rubber for the glass from Bob's as well, thinking if there was a problem, it could be easily solved). The rubber added another $500 to the price. Bob had a tech line if you needed any assistance.

If you have ever seem me operate, you know fully well that installing glass is not something I can, nor should be doing. My friend at the body shop recommended a glass guy that would install the glass for me, and guarantee it wouldn't leak. His estimate was $450. The glass was here, the date was set for the installation. It would be done in my garage, because it was starting to get cold outside, and I have heat. When the day arrived, he and his helper started on the two corner windows. Those windows and rubbers were fighting them all he way. After about 6 hours, the corner windows were still not in. They installed the center back glass, and the glass guy called Bob's tech line, but it was after their hours by then. We rescheduled another day to try again. Between times he was going to make the call to Bob's, and also talk to a couple older glass guys he knew.
The next week we tried again. The call to Bob's was fruitless, no one there had ever installed the Dodge corner windows. He gained some knowledge from his older friends, but not much. We arrived at the conclusion that I was willing to make a few cuts to the roof structure to help with the glass installation, which we did, and we got the glass in. I have no idea how it could have been installed without those minor cuts. After the corner windows, the rest of the glass was a breeze. I intended to install the door glass myself, I've done those before. The 2nd day was also a 6 hour day. When I asked about the bill, he stood by the $450 estimate! I gave him a little extra, those two guys busted their butts on that glass.

One downfall of waiting the extra week for the glass installation was it pretty much put a stand still one everything until it was done. During that off time, I could walk around the truck and make plans on how things needed to be done from that point. You sit and look at the truck, and dream of the finished project, but you also look at how things are fitting. That was about the time I discovered that the front wheels were not centered in the wheel opening, like I had planned for. The wheels were about an inch and a half too far forward in the wheel arch. First you look for the cause, but in the scope of this build, 1.5" doesn't take long to add up. A little here, a little there, a bit more at this point, well crap. The longer you look at it the more it bugs you. After you figured out how it happened and understand it probably couldn't have been avoided, you start looking at how you can fix it. The bottom line was the front clip would have to move forward 1.5", which means the cab would have to move forward 1.5", which means the firewall would need to be moved back into the cab 1.5" That would either leave another 1.5" wider gap between the box and the cab, or the box would have to move forward, which would require trimming another 1.5" off the ends of the frame, or cutting the frame apart and making the wheel base 1.5" shorter, which would require shortening the driveshaft and the gas and brake lines. Or I could move the wheel arches on the front fenders forward 1.5". Once the body work was done, no one except me (and now all of you) would know I did that. I chose the last option.

The next step on the truck was going to be make a set of inner fenders for the front. If the wheel arches were going to be moved, now would be the time, the fenders would both have to come off anyway. The inner fenders would have to wait until at least the front and rear glass was installed. I had a little less then a week to figure out a plan. Gene

New Glass!
Before the glass got installed, I had a few issues with the windshield opening on the passenger side of the truck. At some point, early in its life the truck was at least laid on the passenger side, and caused damage to the roof above the passenger door. I discovered that early on, and spent a lot of time shortly after the truck arrived here addressing that problem. The roof had been pushed down a couple of inches, and someone cut the front pillar and attempted to "repair" it. The repair amounted to jacking it back to close to where is originally was, then poorly welding it back together. After that, they piled on the bondo, to the point most of that 1/2 of the roof had filler over 1" thick. The front fender, roof post, cowl and door was also jacked around and filled with huge amounts of filler. I dug the filler all out, cut loose the pillar again, and put and the front door post back into the proper location, as best as I could determine at that point. I welded it back together, and made a replacement patch for the roof above the door.
Once the cab was bolted to the frame, I could measure and square the cab. The entire roof was swayed towards the driver side nearly an inch, and the windshield opening was not square. The opening on the driver side of the cab was 1" higher then the same location on the passenger side. Who besides me would suspect that the glass isn't going to fit well with the opening that far off?
I was able to push the cab square with a porta power, and add some bracing at the door frames to keep it square, but the height was still way off. I had to cut the pillar apart again, add a piece to the post, and get the height correct, and the cab was still square. This truck has a two piece split flat glass windshield. Originally there is a two piece center brace, one part on the outside of the center rubber, and one part on the inside of the rubber, with 4 sheet metal screws going from the inside piece, through the rubber, and screwing into the outer piece. My truck didn't have those center braces, but I was able to find a really good one online.
Pic 1, You have seen this one before as well, but this time I want to attract your attention to the roof and the area around the door. Everything under the yellow paint was ground down to bare metal, the yellow paint was something I had here that I sprayed on to protect the bare metal from the weather while the truck sat outside for a year or so. You can see the weld line above the roof where I welded in the patch onto the roof. That patch starts at the front corner of the door, and extends back past the visible curve in the roof, its about 6" wide at its widest point. Notice that patch has an outward curve? The piece I cut out had a concave curve in it, and was filled with over 1" of body filler to form the outward curve. On the pillar, about even with the bottom of the sun visor, you can see the section I first extended and welded. Also at the top center of the roof, just towards the passenger side the place that looks like a spot is a dent in the roof about 1" in diameter, it is pulled nearly 1" deep, but never pierced through the roof skin. I believe that was how far over the truck was rolled and whatever caused that deep dent probably stopped the truck from going over all the way. You can also see that the top left (as you are looking at the pic) of the windshield opening has a fabricated pinch weld area around the entire corner. The rain gutter has also been repaired.
Pic 2, Because of all the metal work and bare metal, I picked up a couple spray bombs of acrylic enamel semi gloss black and some acrylic enamel primer in a spray bomb, and primed all the areas around where the glass was going to be installed. My thinking was the glass is going in for good. The acrylic enamel would protect it for as long as I would need it it to, and the semi gloss black was close enough to the color of the rubber, when it was time for a real paint job, we could tape up to the rubber and not be too concerned about a perfect tape line, the black would blend in.
Pic 3, The windshield install from the driver side.
Pic 4, The rear corner window and center rear windows installed. Notice that the original door handle is still on the door? The front and rear glass must have been installed before the Dakota door handles. So much stuff, its hard to keep track of what happened first.

This next part troubles me a bit. I know some people are going to have a heart attack, but understand, this is my truck, the deed has already been done, and your opinion on if it was done "right" in your mind, doesn't make any difference to me. This is not a show truck, and frankly I don't care if someone thinks they can see the lap weld in the final paint or not, it is certainly not going to be painted black, and most likely not any dark color.
I moved the wheel arch on the fender rather then take the entire truck apart to correct a 1.5" difference between where the arch is, and where it should have been centered, and I lap welded all the joints! You can butt weld your stuff if its that important to you. The last one of theses I lap welded and flanged the front fenders lasted 12 years through plowing snow before some lady crashed into it and killed the truck and they hadn't fallen off yet (and showed no sign of failing). In 12 years, I'm going to be 78 if I'm still around. I'll deal with it then if it matters then. You do your ride, I'll do mine.

All that said, lets on with it. I looked at all the pictures I had, but there were none of the tire fit with the uncut wheel arch, so your going to have to take my word it was off enough it bugged me enough to cut up a decent pair of fenders and modify both of them.
Pic 1, This is the arch I cut off. It needs to move 1.5" forward so its centered above the tire. Since I'm moving it forward, I'm also raising it up on the fender about 1.5" so the top of the tire is just about even the bottom of the centered arch. When I move this forward, it obviously is going to leave a gap at the back end that I will have to weld a piece in. Because I'm also raising the arch up, the filler patch will be a bit longer and wider. Pic 2, This is the freshly cut off arch clamped into its new position. At this point I used a marker to outline the cut edge of the arch onto the fender, and mark sets of reference marks, one pair at the top center, at least one pair on the front edge, and at least one pair at the back, where the metal is still together. I discovered years ago that when you are dealing with something long, unusual in shape, and a bit flexible, its more accurate to line up a pair of reference marks about an inch apart on a base line, extending the full length (or in this case as close to full length) as possible. In this case, I have marked pairs of reference lines about 3" on each side of each of the clamps as well as the pair at the center line.
Pic 3, The green marker shows the edge of the arch cut, and the pairs of reference marks on the fender.
Pic 4, This shows you how the Dakota wheel on the 4x4 chassis sets in relation to the fenders with the wheel arch cut off. The arch itself extends the tire cover about 2".

In real life, one fender arch was started and finished before the other side got cut. But in these pictures, I'll be swapping back and forth. The passenger side was first done (the last 4 pics), and as you could see, much of that fender was bare steel, and the marks do not show up well in the pictures. The driver fender was in gray primer, and the markers show up a lot better. These 4 pic are the driver side so you can see the marks better. I'll be swapping side to side because some pictures are easier to see what is going on, but understand the entire process was the same for both sides. Got lots of pictures to post.
Pic 1, This is the driver side fender with the arch cut off.
Pic 2, This is the center arch mark.
Pic 3, This is the front arch mark.
Pic 4 this is the rear of the arch mark.

So the is the business end of the tool that gets me into so much trouble. It is a pneumatic flanging tool.
Pic 1) This is the opening end. You insert a piece of 18 or 20 gauge sheet metal and pull the lever and both jaws come closed. The bottom side makes a flange with a step of about the thickness of 18 gauge sheet metal, about 1" wide, and the step is about 3/8" wide. The top side is a hole punch. It will punch a 3/16" hole in 18 gauge sheet metal. My flanging tool is 30 years old, sometimes you need to pull the lever a couple times at the same spot to punch the hole in 18, but it will still punch 20 with one pull.
Pic 2 The flange end at work.
Pic 3, The punch end at work.
Pic 4, A piece of 18 gauge with the flange bent, and a hole punched in the flange. If you are plug welding in floor pans, the hole is a great diameter to plug weld through. That hole is centered in the jaw width, and at max depth, the hole punches about 3/16" from the jaw.