More on my fresh air intake for the HVAC Dakota box on my 49 Dodge.
Hole cover: The piece of metal started out as a 9" x 6" piece of 20 gauge. It was hand formed to the curve of the cowl. After the curve was done, both edges wire trimmed to match the sides of the hole. The top was bent to fit against the top edge. While being held in place, two holes were drilled in the bottom overlapping edge and self taping screws were screwed into those holes. Both sides were primed. The under side had a small piece of the silver covered bubble wrap glued to it. When the truck got painted, the cover was already screwed to the opening and was painted with the top of the cowl. When in place, with the hood open it pretty well blends in.
Pic 1 As would be viewed from the passenger side of the truck. As you can see, great care was taken to assure the utmost beauty (not). This rolled edge fits over top of the round rod that was welded on the cowl as a water barrier. It and the screws locate the cover.
Pic 2 This is what the bottom side of the cover looks like, from the same edge.
Pic 3, Top view of the driver side of the cover. This side buts up against the opening's edge.
Pic 4 is the bottom as viewed from the drivers side.

Winter fresh air, with a summer cover, crude, simple, and effective. Gene

And 3 pics just for Andy, and one just because.
Pic 1) The Dakota OEM defroster duct holes cut out in the top of my dash.
Pic 2 This was all I had for a dash in my original 49 dash. The large hole on the right side was the glove box (I had no door) The second hole would have been a radio speaker hole. The early Dodge trucks were built for either right or left hand drive. If this truck would have been a right hand drive, the 4 plex of gauges would have been mounted in this hole .and the radio speaker would have been on the other side. The hole in the center was hacked it to hold a radio, it may have been an original radio hole, or may not have been there at all originally. The holes in the lower panel were for the ignition switch at the outer edge (right hand drive the ignition switch would have been in the right side hole, the left hand drive ignition switch was in the left hole. The cigar lighter would have filled whichever ignition switch hole was not used for the ignition. The two center holes were either the headlight switch or the choke pull cable, the choke being closest to the driver. Heater controls would have been in a separate panel that filled the lower dash cut out. I have no idea what might have ben in the hole on the far left of the dash. The two studs under the dash between the gauge hole and the unknown use hole on the left side of the dash is where the steering column mounted.
Pic 3 is the seat riser on my flat floor pan. That is a 3" wide piece of channel iron. a bit of over kill, but I had it here at the time. The seat track adjusters are from www.speedway.com. They com as a set per bucket, so I used 2 sets for both bucket seats. The seats in this truck came out of a 2000 something Dodge minivan, they are the 2nd row seats and were the sto-n-go seats. They may be the original brackets for the seats. I'm considering raising these seats another inch and a half or two inches.
Pic 4 Since I was out taking pictures.... Gene

years ago, i bought six outside handles at carlisle for $5.00
they are very similar to what you used, but they are for the same side. this means the lock cylinder will be forward on one door, while being rearward on the other.
i never looked up the part number, but it is 04719421, and there is a date number of 3110-1/95 on the boxes.
these handles are square edged rectangular units, and are very thin, so they will work great for outside handles on my humpback project. i already have inside "backers" made for the doors to stiffen the inside of the door skin, and these will butt under the outside character line of the body, becoming almost invisible with the body's patina.
i know some would want this thing painted, but #1, i won't live long enough to do so,and #2, i'm not a body man by any stretch of the imagination.

Truck sure turned out nice Gene!!!! I'm impressed!!!!

All looks good Gene. Now I feel special that you're posting pictures for me, HA! But those details are MUCH appreciated as they all help me plan out my 56 before I even put a wrench to it.

Wish I wasn't so deep into other projects, as I have a bad itch to scratch on my 56 project. It'll make a really sweet vintage daily driver with all Dakota underneath. My Dak right now, on a good day may get 200ho to the rear wheels. I plan a remanufactured 4.7HO engine for the 56, with intake and exhaust for better breathing, so I may get close to 300hp to the rear wheels on the 56. Plus with the lower 1st gear in the 545RFE trans versus the 5-spd manual in my Dakota should make it pretty perky for me. Fun and proper V8 rumble to be had.

Thank you.

I was really surprised, it really turned out way better then I expected. It looks better in the pictures then it does in real life, but real life is still better then I expected.

Just a quick update of information for those that may be following. On my last picture post, in my description of the original dash (pic 3), I stated I had no idea what the rectangle hole on the left side of the steering column on the dash would have been for. I now believe that hole could have been for the semi-automatic transmission push button shifter assembly (Fluid Drive as they were called back then), which would have been an option starting in 1948 on the Dodge pickups. In a previous life, this truck cab may have been a Fluid Drive truck cab (the title for this truck was issued by the State of MO long before me, because the ID tag was long gone). I've seen several (and personally owned 3) of this era Dodge trucks that had dashes without that cutout, so I would assume only the fluid drive optioned trucks would have had that cut out. Trying to keep the info as accurate as I can.

Fluid Drive is not a semi automatic transmission. It is nothing more than a fluid coupling between the engine and clutch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_Drive

Now the Dodge semiautomatic was called a Gyromatic. None of them used a pushbutton setup though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presto-Matic

Looking at this picture, is for a radio

Could be a radio as well? Never had a truck with an original radio either. Had one with a speaker behind the speaker grill, but no radio, and that hole wasn't there. Guess I'm back to having no idea, so I guess the radio is a good answer, at least you have a pic of a radio there.