Welcome to the forum. Being from Idaho you should have no trouble finding a suitable project or body. Seems like people dumped all of their old cars into the midwest for some reason.

However, I will offer the same advice I have given lots of other guys doing the very first build. Buy someone's cast off project that is nearly done, or one that is actually running. You can do things to the car to make it your own and be up and driving a whole lot sooner than starting from scratch. Building a car from plans drawn on the garage floor is a long, drawn out affair, and not cheap. (if done right) Nobody ever gets out of a car what they have in it, so you could pick up a car for much less than it would take to duplicate it yourself.

The only thing is that you have to be very selective because there are some horrible cars and workmanship out there, so you want to get one that is reasonably well done and affords a solid start.

Good luck,

Don