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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3021991
03/08/22 05:06 PM
03/08/22 05:06 PM
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Freeport IL USA
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Wiper cont
Pic 1, In the last group of pics was a pic of the right side wiper post. That picture would have been with the wipers in the parked position. This pic is the same post, but is at the end of the travel in full stroke position. Notice the amount of movement of the arm at the linkage end.
Pic 2. This is the infamous idler arm, well at least the bottom 3/4 of it. The top, that you can't see (unless you take it apart) has the same distance from he center bolt to the linkage bolt as the bottom (that you can see). That center bolt is a 1/2" bolt, and the idler has a sealed bearing with a 1/2" id hole. The arms for the linkage are both welded to the bearing retainer, 180 degrees apart. The rusty link you see is from the motor, The bolt holding it passes through the a hole in the arm and the linkage from the right side wiper post connects to the back of that bolt. The linkage for the driver side wiper post is attached to the arm at the top of the idler. With the linkage in this position, the wiper is at the end of the full stroke. The part you see behind the idler is the cowl vent door. The lever you see under the motor linkage is what opens and closes the cowl door. There is a better view of it in the next pic. The vertical bar towards the right of the idler is the bracing between the cowl and the dash lower support, the stud with the red paint around it is the farthest left glove box mounting bolt.
Pic 3, This is the same exact view as the last pic, the difference is the linkage is now in the wiper park position. On the top left of the idler you can see just the lower end of the arm for the driver side wiper linkage. You can also now see the arm that is bolted to the cowl vent door that is used to open and close the door. The door is currently closed, to open it, the bottom of that lever moves toward the firewall (away from you). The linkage coming at you is connected to the actuator that opens and closed the door.
Pic 4, This is a little better view of the forward linkage that opens & closes the cowl door. It also gives you a better view of the lower end of the door lever. Notice the adjustment bolt to adjust the tension on the closed door? This is necessary to assure the door is closed to keep the seal water tight. There is a water drain channel around the vent door seal, but it has limited capacity.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022021
03/08/22 06:56 PM
03/08/22 06:56 PM
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Freeport IL USA
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Cowl vent cont.
Things are not always the way you would like. In its original configuration, the actuator that opens the cowl vent door sits directly under the door on a bracket that mounts between the firewall and the bottom of the dash. It has a cam with 3 steps in it, fully closed, 1/2 open, and fully open. It has a lever that is spring loaded that rides against that cam, and when it opens the actuator pushes the door straight up, and pulls straight down to close. There is a lever welded to the actuator that hangs under the dash the multiplies the pressure the actuator has.
There are just a few problems. Since the bottom of the original dash is no longer present, the supporting bracket no longer is present. The actuator that sits under the open vent is rusted solid. The spring for the lever that locks into the cam is a rusted blob and the lever is bent and no longer contacts the cam. The lever that was welded to the actuator to multiply the leverage is broken off the actuator, and finally, the position under the vent door is occupied by the wiper linkage.
Who's idea was it to make this function?
To my surprise, a week long soak in a vinegar bath actually freed up the actuator. With a little more cleaning and a lot of lube, it actually moved like it was suppose to. I made a new lever that locks into the cam, and came up with a spring that would work. Welding a lever on the actuator was going to be easy, once I figured out exactly how I was going to make this work. The actuator would have to be mounted in my dash in a way it was going to work at 90 degrees from its original intent. Instead of pushing up to open the door, it was going to have to push back, except if I mounted it that way, the lever to open and close it would end up on top of the dash, rather then under the dash. It took a lot of trial and error to get it to sort of function like I had envisioned, but then I had to figure out how I was going to actually make mounts to hold it in the position it needed to be in. That took another few days of trial and error. The final resting place has it sitting at about a 90 degree angle from its original position, and it is also turned upside down. The lever I added basically moves the actuator backwards from what it was designed to move. That lever is pretty long, fortunately, everything moves pretty freely. The worst thing that happened is the 1/2 open notch on the cam isn't quite 1/2 open, its more like a 1/4 open, and the spring setup isn't really strong enough to keep it open at that point. It functions in fully open and fully closed though. I'm calling that a win.
Pic 1, Here is the actuator in its current home. This is in the door closed position. In its original position on the 49, the flat area on the upper right side would have been the bottom. The lever going forward would have been pointing towards the rear (and would have been pointing up) and the welded on lever would have been in just about the position of the lever that would have pointed towards the rear.
Pic 2, The actuator is in the full open position here.
Pic 3, The linkage rod is in the full open position here.
Pic 4, Sometimes the process to make this stuff work isn't very pretty, but sometimes the finished product isn't very pretty either.

Then I had to modify the dash cover. Gene

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022149
03/08/22 11:11 PM
03/08/22 11:11 PM
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Its about time to start finishing some stuff up, starting with the interior. Lots of pictures.
Pic 1, Kind of an over view of the wiper assembly.
Pic 2, NOICO laid down on the floor. The holes cut in the insulation are mounting holes for the seats and the seat belts.
Pic 3, Close up view, see how nice the NOICO rolls in tight?
Pic 4, I wanted a darker gray, but color choices were pretty slim then. They are not much better now. This color is no longer available either.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022151
03/08/22 11:21 PM
03/08/22 11:21 PM
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More interior.
Pic 1, Front end of the door frame.
Pic 2, Rear edge of the door frame.
Pic 3, Dash cover pieces.
Pic 4, More dash & the glove box.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022155
03/08/22 11:35 PM
03/08/22 11:35 PM
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More interior.
Pic 1, Laying carpet. This stuff is the "auto carpet" from Menards. Its cheap, but holds up pretty well except areas like under your right heal. I put cheap floor mats on top of this carpet.
Pic 2, Laying carpet on the other side. I used the same carpet on the back wall under the windows, and on the inside of both doors. I bought Gorilla glue to hold the carpet to the doors and the back panel based on the recommendation of the person in charge of glue department at Menards instead of buying the more expensive 3M stuff. I won't be doing that again.
Pic 3, The painted dash covers installed.
Pic 4, Seats and seat belts bolted in.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022160
03/08/22 11:59 PM
03/08/22 11:59 PM
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More interior.
Pic 1, The installed dash from the passenger side. The lever on the passenger seat is to release the seat back to fold down, the back will fold down flat on the seat bottom. There is some storage space behind the seats.
Pic 2, The seats & belts from the passenger side. Notice that the head rests that were on the seats are gone. After the carpet was put on the doors, arm rests were added to the doors, and both outer arm rests on the seats were gone. There was also a center consul with an arm rest/small storage box and 2 drink holders added between the seats. After that was added, the center arm rests on the seats went away as well. I'm going to modify the door panels this spring. I don't have any pictures of the doors or the center consul, I'll update this after I get some pics.

At this point the weather was starting to break for the spring. The last major project remaining is the bed construction. Up to this point, the steel floor and front panel from the bed off the donor Dakota has been bolted to the frame, and that bed had held a lot of stuff. The battery and the fuel filler were both going to be placed inside of the bed sides, on the driver side front corner. There are 33 pictures of the bed construction. Gene

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022662
03/10/22 03:38 PM
03/10/22 03:38 PM
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A quick update showing the center consul, the truck with just the Dakota bed floor bolted on, and a pic of the truck as it sits today.
Pic 1, Center consul with the lid closed.
Pic 2, Center consul with the lid open. There is enough space between the consul and the back of the cab to put an 8 pack tall cooler.
Pic 3, The truck with the Dakota steel bed floor bolted onto the frame (best pic I have of that).
Pic 4, The truck as it sits on the driveway, a few minutes ago. there is roughly 3,500 miles on the truck since June, last summer.
I'm trying to get the bed assembly pictures in order, they are scattered all over my picture file. Since I posted one pic, there are only 32 more to go, unless I find more... Gene

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022695
03/10/22 05:30 PM
03/10/22 05:30 PM
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I might as well start on the bed build.
As usual, I couldn't make this easy. The bed floor is bolted to the frame, and I kept the front panel of the Dakota bed attached to the floor. That front panel is too wide, and it it too high, but I figured that would be better then too narrow and too short. The bed floor (except where the wheel arches were) is also too wide, trimming the width would also be required. I would also have to cut a notch out of the bed floor for the fill tube to come through the floor. The next thing is, I want the fuel filler tube to come up inside of the bed rather then outside of the bed. The original Dakota fill tube came up between an inner bed wall and an outer bed wall and filled through a gas door on the outside wall. This step side bed only has one bed wall, and it is inside of where the original inside wall of the Dakota bed was. The fill tube outside diameter is 1.75", to get that inside of the step side bed, I have to loose about 4" of its width, and still keep the upward curve. The top of that tube is about 6" above the bed floor, and there really isn't much tube that can be cut out of that height. The top of the tank is only 3" below the top of the floor and the fill tube enters into the tank at the top of the tank. I can modify the tube enough to get it inside of the step side bed, but making it shorter is a completely different story. I can build a box around the fill tube, and add the gas door to cover the cap. That will give the gas fill system protection from anything that may be put inside of the bed, but that presents another set of problems. The protection box will need to be removable, and the bed side will also have to be removable if there is ever a need to do anything with the fill tube.

If I make one bed side removable, I should probably make the other bed side removable as well, don't you think? I do. If the bed sides are going to be removable, they have to bolt to the bed floor and bolt to the front panel, and also bolt to the back panel. Most step side beds are welded together at the rear crossmember to keep them from flopping around, I'm going to have to add bracing at the rear some how to keep the rear of the bed sides from flopping around as it goes down the road, and those too will have to bolt in place.

So as I'm sitting and trying to figure out how to make the bed sides bolt on, it occurs to me the top of the bed rails are going to have to be pretty close to the same angle as the lines on the cab, or the truck will look "broken". That angle probably isn't going to match up with the angle the bed floor is bolted to the frame at. Maybe I can shim the bed floor to the correct angle, maybe not, but how am I going to get that bed rail angle right, and how am I going to determine how high the bed rails should be compared to the cab height? More thinking!

The 1st thing to do was determine exactly how wide I wanted the bed floor to be. I chose 49" because that was about the 49's original bed floor width. There were already enough variables, eliminating one of them couldn't hurt. The floor was trimmed to the 49" width (based off a center line), The area where the original Dakota wheel wells were will have to have 2" of gap filled in on each side. Then I added 1" to each side of the front panel (to bend and bolt to the side panels) then trimmed the front panel (based off the center line), and bent the 1" edges towards the rear. The original 49 bed sides bolted to the front panel, there were already bolt holes in the side panels I would reuse. With the width determined, I could clamp a piece of tubing on the rear edges of the bed, and clamp the front edges to the front panel, and determine the real height and angle I wanted by the old fashioned method, I stepped back and looked at it. At this point two more realizations took place. 1, Tire clearance was going to have to be cut out of the bed sides. 2, The original angles that Dodge used to set the bed sides onto its original floor had to be removed. After both of those were done, I was able to clamp the bed sides back in place. The clamping on the tube at the rear worked well, but the clamping to the sheet metal front panel and the sheet metal side panels left a lot to be desired. I came up with a plan. I could put a set of jack stands on the bed floor, then clamp a piece of 2" square tubing I had laying around to the top of the bed rails, then shim between the tubing and the jack stands until I got the front height I wanted. When I was happy with the angle and height of the rails, I could drill through the bent edges of the front panel through a couple of the holes in each of the bed sides and bolt the sides to the front panel.
Pic 1, Kind of hard to see, but you get the idea of the jack stands & tubing.
Pic 2, This is about how the tubing was clamped at the rear, the tubing pictured is 1.5" square, and the clamp was placed behind the stake pocket about there the chain hung (the chain was pulled out of the way). This was very stable.
Pic 3, This one shows the end result of this part of the thought process. I had a hard time trying to determine the height the bed rails should be, but then I saw the bottom of the cab and the bottom of the bed side and the light bulb went off in my head, why not line up the straight edge bottoms? Duh! You can also see the tire clearance cut out of the bed side, and you can see the clamp holding the rail to the tubing setting the front height. You can also see that the top of the rail pretty much has the same angle as the body line on the door, but is a couple inches lower. The height of the bed sides to the bed floor is different front to rear, the rear bed sides are nearly 2" higher off the floor then the front. Had I based the the rail angle off the bed floor it would have made the truck look like the rear of the frame was bent down just behind the cab, and it would have been a mess trying to lift the front sheet metal and cab, and the rear of the bed far enough off the frame to look right.
Pic 4, This pic was taken a bit later, but it really shows the jack stands/tubing/clamps to set the front height. You can see the fuel fill tube sticking up through the bed floor on the left side. This same set up was used at the rear to set the height of the rails there as well.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022705
03/10/22 06:29 PM
03/10/22 06:29 PM
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I was pretty happy with the bed rail angle, and it looked great until I looked straight at the side. I wasn't real happy with the gap between the bed and the cab. At this point the bed sides can still shift forward (or rear ward for that matter) on the bed floor, but the floor would be a lot more difficult to move on the frame. If I wanted to close that gap, that would be the time to do so. With the bed sides clamped to the tubing, I could slide the bed forward to get an idea how much I was going to move the bed sides.

I still had the front of the bed sitting here. The truck came without a tailgate, so my plan was to use the front of the Dakota bed for the front panel, then use the 49's front bed panel for a tailgate. Earlier in the project I stumbled across a newer Dodge step side tailgate for $75, but it was pretty beat up. The newer tailgates were wider then the 49 was, so I could cut the messed up ends off. The height was also higher then I was going to need, which would allow me to cut off the messed up top and bottom rails on the late model tailgate. $75 was a bargain for one of these tailgates, even in this condition. Since I bought the tailgate, this opened up the option to modify the original front panel.

The original 49 bed has the side rails angled out and up at a 45 degree angle for the top 6" or so. Then the front panel, and the tailgate would match up with the bed sides at the lower edge of the angle, making the bed sides higher and wider then the bed is (you can see that angle in the last pic of the last installment under the tubing). I intend to put a bed cover on this truck and I want the cover to go over top of the rails, so I wanted to fill that gap. The Dakota frame kicks up enough that you loose a lot of bed depth on the 49 bed sides (the bed floor is about 7" - 8" higher on the bed sides then it would have been on the 49 frame). What that means for me is I can shift the front panel forward, raise it up level with the top of the rails, and still have about 3" of metal left to attach to the floor. One big advantage of moving the front of the bed forward, it would allow me to put the battery in front of the fuel fill door.
Pic 1, The "new" $75 tailgate. You can't see how messed up it really is.
Pic 2, The original 49 bed front panel bent to its new shape.
Pic 3, The gap between the center of the bed and the cab. It hard to read, but it is 1.5", or about 1/2 of what it was before the bed side shift forward.
Pic 4, The future home of the battery.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022920
03/11/22 01:49 PM
03/11/22 01:49 PM
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To attach the bed sides to the bed floor, I used some pieces of 1/8" x 1" x 1" angle. I used 4 pieces of that angle, one at each front corner, and one at each rear corner. The area between the angles on each side would need to have a gap between the floor and the bed sides filled. Once the position of the bed sides was determined, one leg of the angle was marked and drilled with with (4) 1/4" holes, one hole about 2" from the each end, and the other two holes splitting the distance between the outside holes, those holes were centered on the leg's width. With the holes drilled, the angle was set in place with the holed surface laying on the bed floor, then the other leg of the angles were clamped, leg facing up, to the bed sides at the correct height to position the bed sides at the proper height. All 4 of the bed side angles were stitch welded to the bed sides. After the forward and rearward position of the bed sides on the bed floor was determined, the bed floor was marked through the holes, and the bed sides were pulled out of the way and the holes were drilled to 3/8" diameter through the bed floor. I trimmed near each hole in the bed floor so I could install the 1/4" U-nuts, the 3/8" holes gave me some movement of the U-nuts to make final adjustments to the bed side location before thy were tightened up. I did have to notch the angle near the fuel fill tube to assure clearance, I didn't want to take a chance of the tube rubbing against the angle and cause a possible spark, or a rub through.
Pic 1, This pic shows all 4 angles bolted to the floor and welded into place.
Pic 2, This is the right side bed angles bolted and welded into place. You can also see the gap in the floor between the two pieces of angle, this "cut out" was where the original Dakota wheel well was attached to the bed floor. The Dakota bed was fully welded, I cut the wheel well out of the floor with my plasma cutter, but it could have been cut out with a sawzall with a fine tooth blade. The bed floor in that area is just sheet metal, but reinforcing bracing under the bed is not far away, an under bed inspection before cutting would be a good idea.
Pic 3, This is the right front corner, you can better see the where the wheel well was removed.
Pic 4, This is an overhead shot of the left front corner angle. You can see fuel tube sticking out of the floor and you can see the notch in the angle around the fill tube. The rectangular hole on the left side of the pic is the hole where the battery cables will come up through the floor. That hole is towards the center of the bed, about 1" from that side of the battery. I'm using a pair of "0" size battery cables, the hole is big enough for clearance of both cables, and I made a bracket for the cables to clamp to the floor to prevent damage to them.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3022961
03/11/22 04:16 PM
03/11/22 04:16 PM
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Bed build cont,
Pic 1, There is a lot going on in this pic. The nice clean curved cut out above the tire was the cut I made for tire clearance. In the 1st mock up, the bedside part that was cut off rested against the inside sidewall of the tire. I don't know that the truck will ever see a big heavy load, but I didn't want to take a chance, so I cut out enough of the bed side so I didn't ever have to be concerned about the tire sidewall rubbing against the bed side. Notice that there is a discoloration on both sides of the bed, about even with the top of the tire, That discoloration makes a straight line, from the front of the bed to the rear of the bed. That discoloration was caused by me cutting the original welds that held the angle that held the side onto the original 49 bed floor. The original wood bed floor sat under that line. Also notice there is a line of burn spots (most easily seen on the left side of the pic just below the bed body line) that also forms a straight line from the front to the back of the bed side, those spots are caused from welding the "new" angle iron pieces to the bed side that rest on top of the steel Dakota bed floor. The holes that form the 1/2 circle around the tire on the bed side are where the rear fenders bolt to the bed side.
Pic 2, This is the building of the box around the battery. This box was screwed to the front of the bed, the bed floor, and to a bracket welded to the inside of the bed side, so it could be completely removable. There was a lid made that sits on top of that box at a slight angle for water to run off. The water runs off towards the center of the bed, and slightly towards the rear of the bed. The water then can exit out of the bed under the edge of the bed front panel. You can also see the fuel fill tube coming up from under the bed floor. The plastic piece on top of the fill tube is what holds the tube to the gas door, which is laying open on the floor, just forward of the 4x4 laying on the bed at the bottom of the pic. In its current state, that plastic piece is turned 90 degrees with the high side towards the bed side and the gas door is on top of it at the angle matching the plastic. The gas door opens with the door against the battery box. There is a separate box built around the fill tube that is also removable, it is screwed to the bed on the rear side and the center side, and is screwed to brackets attached to the back side of the battery box and the inside of the bed side. There is a metal piece that fits between the plastic piece and the flange on the fill tube, that flange is screwed to the sides of the battery box and the back wall of the fill tube wall, and is screwed to the the flange on the fill tube. The gas door piece is screwed to the bed side at the top, the plastic piece in the center, and the fill tube box on the side facing the bed center.
Pic 3, You have seen this pic before. What I want to point out here is the difference between the rear edge of the bed side and the rear edge of the bed floor. This difference was caused by the bed sides being moved forward to close up the gap between the front of the bed and the rear of the cab. That ribbed bed floor is spot welded to a 5" square sheet metal box that forms the rear box crossmember. That crossmember is bolted to the frame. I ended up cutting the ribbed floor away from the crossmember box so I could cut the box and reform it so the rear surface was even with the rear edge of the bed sides. Once the box ox was shortened and the bolt mounting surface reattached, the box was welded back together, the of the bed floor was trimmed to length, and the ribbed floor was rewelded to the crossmember box. Now I could bolt the tailgate to the crossmember box and have it flush with the bed sides.
Pic 4, The $75 tailgate, slightly modified. The bent and bowed bottom round tube was cut off and replaced with a new 1.5" square tube. That square tube it welded to the tailgate skin, and 3 large hinges are welded to that tube and are bolted to the rear crossmember. Both sides have been cut off and new edge pieces were added to both sides. Notice the top tube is clamped to the tail gate, in its finished position, the top of it will be even with the top of the bed side rails. The gate is clamped closed as I prepare to adjust the height of that top tube. You can see pretty clearly the angled top of the bed rails I spoke of earlier in this picture, that gap between the tailgate and the bed side rails will be addressed in a future update.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3023068
03/11/22 10:26 PM
03/11/22 10:26 PM
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Tailgate & back bumper.
Pic 1, This is the right side of the tailgate up close and sort of personal. What I want to attract your attention to is the right side hinge area. Notice there are 3 bolts there, two offset in the hinge, and one below the hinge. Also notice below the black painted rear crossmember that all 3 of the bolts pass through you can see a small strip of reddish metal. That little chunk of metal is very important. The bed sides are sitting on pieces of 1/8" thick 1" x 1" angle iron that is bolted to the sheet metal bed floor. That angle iron is all the support the rear bed sides have. At the front of the bed, in addition to the angle iron, the bed sides are also bolted to the full height front panel on both sides, and that front panel is welded to the floor. It should be pretty obvious that if I want a tailgate that I can lower, I'm going to need additional support for the bed sides. On nearly all of the pickup beds out there, the back corner of the bed sides are welded to the rear bed crossmember, and many have an extra brace below the rear crossmember that extends to nearly the bottom of the bed sides. That attachment is what keeps the bed sides from flopping around, for the most part. There is also nearly always some sort of a catch bracket on the upper part of the tail gate that captures the bed side when the gate is closed as well. as a case in point, when the tailgate is open, the only thing besides how the bed sides are attached to the floor, the only other thing that keeps the bed side solid it that attachment at the rear crossmember and the brace below it. If you open your tailgate and can shift the top of the bed side in and out, you need to look at the condition of that rear crossmember and the brace under it and get it fixed! That problem happens faster on pickups that have no tailgate, or a truck where the tailgate is often open because the extra catch for the bedside on the tailgate isn't present.
So back to my truck, my bed sides are bolted to the rear crossmember. The little sliver of the red is part of a brace that is welded to the bedside from the bed floor to below the rear crossmember and it is braced under the floor to the bed side. That brace is tucked into the channel of the rear crossmember and the bolts are actually holding the crossmember and the brace together, the hinge location was planned to take advantage of the top two bolts. The other bed side has the same brace.
Pic 2, Lets build a back bumper! Of course it started with a cardboard pattern, then I transferred the cardboard pattern to a sheet of 11 gauge metal, then cut the 11 gauge with my plasma cutter. 3 pieces were cut, a strip 4 1/5" wide by 64' long that would be the curved bumper face, a 64" long piece with a single curve, the thinnest part, the ends are 4" wide and the center is 8" wide that is the top surface, and a 2nd curved piece with a matching curve, this one 2" wide at the ends and 6" wide in the center that would be the bottom piece. Who here would believe me if I tell you that adding a consistent curve to 11 gauge (1'8" thick) that is 4.5" wide for 64" long is a bit of a challenge without a roller? You kind of get it close by forcing the piece between, under or over some heavy stuff. Then you clamp the top piece of metal to a heavy bench (or in my case, some heavy steel saw horses), then you mark a center line on both pieces, and start at the center and clamp the curved front piece against the cut curve of the top piece with anything you can find that will hold it in place and square. You put a tack weld on each side of your clamped "movable fixture" and move towards each edge a few tack welds at a time as you move the "fixtures" and the top plate to maintain support. Sometimes you need to add a couple more fixtures so you can force the facing plate tight against the curve. at the end of that day, I was wore out. Once the top and the face was tacked together, you repeated the same deal with the bottom piece to the face plate. It was easier because the face plate was already tacked to the top plate at the curve. The hardest part on the bottom piece was keeping the the edges square and the distance between the top and the bottom plate the same.
Pic 3, This is pretty much what I was looking for. From this point, the top and bottom edges was welded solid on both the inside and the outside, and the edges were slightly rounded. Any defects in the weld were fixed. then the ends were capped, and bracing was added in the center so brackets could be made to bolt the bumper to the frame. I bought a new class 3 hitch (3,000 -5,000lbs capacity, it is a Dakota 4x4 chassis, not a full sized truck frame) for the truck, incase I ever needed to tow anything. The hitch was bolted to the frame, then I made bumper brackets from 1/8" 1.5 x 1.5 angle (2 per side).
Pic 4, The hitch and the bumper bolted to the truck, notice the tailgate is still clamped closed. There is 6" between the bottom of the tailgate and the top of the bumper. The tail lights and the license plate will be put on a panel in that space.

This is about where I tell you I just have never found a tail light set up on step side beds that I like. The fenders are too far forward to hang the lights on them on this truck, and the factory style brackets and lights that hang off the lower stake pockets always looked to me like some designer designed the back end of the truck then thought "OH Crap! I forgot to put tail lights on the truck, just hang these there." The problem is, I'm not doing any better myself...

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3023074
03/11/22 10:45 PM
03/11/22 10:45 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 10,486
Freeport IL USA
poorboy Offline OP
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Bed build cont.
Pic 1, Lets fill that gap between the top of the tailgate and the top of the bed rails, and enclose the ends of the rails at the same time.
Pic 2, The left side. While I built this, I also capped the top of the stake pocket and added a 3/8" hole with a nut welded on that I can screw a 3/8" eye hook into to tie stuff in the bed. Also, the the back ground you can see the painted tail light panel, more pictures of that later.
Pic 3, The outside view. The extended piece at the top with the hole in it is what I'm using right now to hold the tailgate closed. There is a matching hole in the tailgate flange and I have a 3/8" spring hook the passes through both holes to keep the gate closed. I haven't made the decision on the final method to hold the gate closed at this point.
Pic 4, The right side piece.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3023080
03/11/22 11:07 PM
03/11/22 11:07 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 10,486
Freeport IL USA
poorboy Offline OP
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Bed build cont.
Pic 1, The tailgate closed with the top corners added. You can also see that the gap on the front corners has also been filled. When I find a bed cover, it should fit nicely. The tailgate is being held closed with 3/8" bolts at this point.
Pic 2, This is the back side of the tail light panel with the hold cut out for the taillight.
Pic 3, This is what the front side looks like. The top in the pic it the top of the piece. those little flange pieces across the top are the mounting tabs, those are screwed tight to the rear crossmember box under the closed tailgate. The little bent lip on the bottom tucks under the back edge of the rear bumper. The pieces tack welded on the sides are screwed to the bed sides.
Pic 4, When you fail at choosing a tail light, as least make it functional. These beauties' are very bright, LED, stop, turn and back up lights. They were fairly cheap. if they don't grow on me, it won't be a huge loss to loose them, but until I find a better option, they are staying for now.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3023087
03/11/22 11:23 PM
03/11/22 11:23 PM
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Posts: 10,486
Freeport IL USA
poorboy Offline OP
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Bed conclusion
Pic 1, Lets pull it out on the driveway and have a good look from a ways away. The back end without the tail lights. The piece of cardboard is license plate size and will be the plate location on the back.
Pic 2, The side view. The rear fender really is centered, but the fender was really distorted at some time in its past. Once I got the running boards make and bolted to the fender, the fender sat straight.
Pic 3, 3/4 front view. Notice the "list of stuff to do" taped to the door glass? There was a never ending list on this truck. it identifies the progression in the order it needs to be done. There is still a list, its just not taped to the truck anymore, its hanging on the clip board in the shop.
Pic 4, The other side.

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3023095
03/11/22 11:58 PM
03/11/22 11:58 PM
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Freeport IL USA
poorboy Offline OP
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Fresh brushed on red oxide primer, the old good stuff, with no body filler work done, with the lights installed.
Pic 1, Driver side 3/4 front.
Pic 2, Passenger side 3/4 front.
Pic 3, Driver side (the list is still taped to the door glass).
Pic 4, Had to wait for clouds to get a good pic of the back end. Inside of the bed 9on the left side) you can see the lid for the battery box towards the front and just part of the top of the fuel filler box.

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Last edited by poorboy; 03/12/22 12:02 AM. Reason: forgot to add the pictures.
Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3023101
03/12/22 12:20 AM
03/12/22 12:20 AM
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Freeport IL USA
poorboy Offline OP
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New plates, new tires on matching wheels, running boards, legal to drive. June 2, 2021
Pic 1, Passenger side, 3/4 front. The only thing missing was the stainless rings around the headlights.
Pic 2, Driver side, 3/4 front.
Pic 3, Driver side 3/4 rear.
Pic 4, Passenger side 3/4 rear.

I drove the Donor Dakota onto the driveway on July 10, 2020 and started dissembling it.
That is pretty much all there is for now.
If you have any questions about anything, just ask.
Thanks for watching,
Gene

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Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: poorboy] #3023134
03/12/22 09:25 AM
03/12/22 09:25 AM
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 3,490
Buckeye Lake
56_Royal_Lancer Offline
My Mouth Is Shut II
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A great build thread. That is a lot of work to write, document and post a project like this and I appreciate the effort. The truck came out great, It is unlikely that I will ever see it "in person" but I sure would like to. Congrats on a Job Well Done.
Cheers beer

Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: 56_Royal_Lancer] #3023219
03/12/22 01:19 PM
03/12/22 01:19 PM
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 19,239
north of coder
moparx Offline
"Butt Crack Bob"
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north of coder
excellent write up Gene ! up bow
this effort you put into this build proves once and for all, you are the EXPERT in dakota swaps !
i really appreciate the effort you took in precisely describing each picture. anyone that reads this thread HAS to learn something. i know i did ! several ideas popped into my head for bracing the body on my "eternal project".
Thank You Sir ! boogie
beer

Re: 49 Dodge pickup on a 96 Dakota 4x4 chassis [Re: moparx] #3069736
08/19/22 10:31 PM
08/19/22 10:31 PM
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Freeport IL USA
poorboy Offline OP
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I need to update this, just incase anyone was interested.

June 6th, 2022. I started doing body work on the 49. This is important because I really dislike doing body work. I know how to do it, I'm capable of doing it, but I can only stand to do it for about 2 months, then I'm really fed up and I'm ready to paint the vehicle, regardless of if the vehicle is ready to being painted or not. Add to that, I'm really not the painter kind of guy, I can run the paint, and miss other places on the same vehicle, on any paint job. What I often end up with is a pretty good paint job on body work that should have continued for another month, and I basically don't care until a year or two later. In the past, I've used cheap paint, and its usually in pretty rough looking shape in 4-5 years. Then I conjure enough energy to take another 2 month stab at it. After 2-3 rounds, the same vehicle starts looking pretty good, if I keep it long enough.

So, I began the body work fully knowing the time frame involved.
Last year I brushed on some very old, oil based anti rust red oxide primer. This was some left over from a can from 2012, back when the paint was still pretty good stuff. The goal was to protect the body from the winter salt. That old red oxide did the job great! Being brushed on, it was a royal pain to sand off, 100 grit on a DA sort of made most of it smooth. Being realistic, the main goal on this round was to cover the many weld seams at the patches (the welds were all completely welded closed there were no holes), and remove and fill in most of the bigger craters. Places where filler work was to be done, I went down to the bare metal. I'm old school, I put filler onto bare metal (that is not open to debate at this point).
Both doors had the bottom 4" replaced (inner door frame and outer skins), and both doors had the Dakota door handles welding into them. The passenger door had a crease where the door was forced into the fender, and also had a crease across nearly the entire width just about mid door height. Both front fenders had the wheel arch moved and the passenger side fender was really bent up and was badly repaired in a previous life. The passenger side of the nose piece was also badly damaged and badly repaired when the fender was screwed up. Even the passenger side roof had to be repaired after someone's fix from years ago. the box sides had 3 tie down hooks (each side) bolted to the box sides that had badly distorted the box sides at those 3 places on each side. Both rear fenders experienced the life most old pickup rear fenders experienced, both were beat up, but had no rust.

Pic or it didn't happen, right?
Pic 1) You will notice most of the welding on the truck was was done very early in its presence at my place. Nearly all the early welding was covered by yellow paint (preserved the new metal & welds). This 1st pic is the best pic that shows the patch at the bottom of the drivers door.
Pic 2) This shows the bottom of the passenger door, and the crease at the front from the fender contact.
Pic 3) The roof patch. This side of the roof had the windshield opening 1" shorter then the same location on the other side of the truck! After it was damaged, someone welded it back together, but had it too short. I spent a good couple weeks getting the windshield opening and the door pose even close to correct. Notice the curve on this patch? when I got the truck, the steel was bent in, rather then out, there was over 1" thick filler sculpting that roof line. That was the 1st thing I did right after I figured out why the windshield opening didn't look quite right just after I bought the truck. If I couldn't fix this, the truck would have started of with looking for a cab.
Pic 4) This front 3/4 view pretty much shows the worst damage the truck had, and the reason for this round of body work. Perfection was not the goal, improvement was. Gene

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