hi and welcome from new zealand
lots and lots of good advice here-good to hear you are in it for the long haul cause thats what these projects are!
i too look forward to a dedicated build thread with lots of photo's
if this was my first build, i'd be looking around the wrecking yards or looking for a suitable donor car.
wrecking yards-taking a tapemeasure and looking for a complete frontend that already is setup with steering/brakes/suspension and a rearend with leaf springs/shocks/etc
donor car-with the right car-you may get engine/trans/diff/ wiring/instruments/wheels and suspension.
one of our club members bought a wb holden ute for $1000, that was put off the road with rust issues and out of that he got 350smlblk engine and turbo350 trans that had been recoed and a 10 bolt limited slip diff and a set of mag wheels with good tyres and driveshaft.
this was to go in a jailbar-similar to yours,so he cut the front part of the holden chassis of and grafted it on and also used the rear leaf springs and the brake booster/mastercylinder.you also get lots of little things like brakelines/fuel tank/lines/seatbelts.etc
big saving on cost and gets the bulk of the build up and running very quickly.
good luck on your build