Wayne you at least know what the finished product will look like - thta is more than what most projects start out at. So, you know what you now have and you know what it will look like, all you need to do is figure the steps to get from here to there.
It is obvious thta you are going to take the car apart, rebuild some companants and replace others. The only way to do that safely is to document. When we do this type of thing each part that comes off the car gets a picture while it is in place, another picture (and a tag with a part number) right on the floor and a note made in a book about what the part number is. When the pictures are developed they go into a photo album and there is a proper journal created to tye the photo album to the car and the factory shop manual. Why do this? Because you won't be the only one to work on the car, it'll go to a body shop etc and be out of your hands for long periods of time. It will likely be next year befor you start to reassemble and replace the factory stuff. Lots of times even longer. Thta book and photo album will be worth its' weight in gold!
Pick and choose the skill sets that you want to develop and practice - you want to weld, get some tin and have at it - don't learn on your finished product; think about being the electrician? get the tools and learn how to make proper splices, learn somethoery and understand how to read the schematics - don't learn on the finished product.
Ebay and local car corrals are filled with cars where people have learned to weld etc on their first finished product. Wanna be a body man, learn on metal shaping before pounding on your keeper.
Above all, remember that there is no deadline to complete your car by, all hot rods are works in progress and they are never finished.
A successful hot rod has to fulfill three things for the owner - the need for speed is the easist, just get a bigger motor; the technical challange - that is the part about how to learn to weld or metalform; the third is the most difficult - pride in workmanship. If the hot rod doesn't challange you in these three areas then you'll soon get bored and take up bass fishing or golf.
Have fun, oj