[Xeen]

Welcome to the board.
If you are looking for some ideas on direction and keeping costs low then I can definately help you there.
If you are within an hour of a big city use it to your advantage, try and find a local mini-yard for chevy trucks because not everything you need to buy for the truck has to be new, craigslist will probably help you track it down.
Avoid powdercoating anything because it is a budget killer.

Go down to harbor freight and buy some 4-1/2" 11k RPM Polycarbide disks they are the next best thing to sand blasting, it will quickly and easily remove any contaminate it touches including paint, bondo, surface rust, heavy scale rust, It will clean up the metal and leave a nice clean shiny surface and most of the time it requires no pressure to do the job just the weight of the grinder will usually be enough, only on the heaviest of scale rust does it require any presure.
Reserve the use of your wire wheel on crevices and places you can't get to with the poly disk.

Eastwood sells a very nice house brand MIG welder that is bang for your buck.

Shipping charges will kill your budget faster than almost anything so pay attention when you buy your parts because a lot of places will ship your entire order free if it is over a specified amount, also some places like speedwaymotors.com or summitracing.com run shipping specials on items all the time where if you buy a certain item your entire order ships free, so take advantage of it and make a comprehensive parts list before you buy anything.
If you happen to forget something and need it really fast speedway motors is the fastest in the business.

There are lots more money saving tips but this is all I have time to share today.
Subscribed and I will be following along.