Shelby Dakota Clone?

ok so my uncle has a 1988 Dakota. It was my grandfathers from 1996 until he passed last august. good ol' truck, but pretty tired. Ive told my uncle once the engine (3.9 v6) blows, give me the truck and ill hot rod it.

Anyway i just got this months Mopar Action and they have an Aritlce on the 1989 Shelby Dakotas. Shelby dumped a 318 under the hood and an a500 tranny, prettied up the interior, and added stripe decals and a Chevy-Avalanche-esque light bar

nothin set in stone but i thought itd b cool to clone my uncles dak into a shelby. a few problems would be the fact that our truck is a long bed, would require a ton of resto before modding, and good luck finding Shelby stuff for it, especially that oh-so necceaary light bar. But i figure with a lil inginuity, it could be a cool custom truck to haul parts with. perhaps swap in a 05-10 5.7L hemi (if itd fit, cuz i got no clue)

thoughts? Like i said its just a crazy thought i got in my head, but i know ima hot rod that truck somehow. this would just be a cool unique way to do it