Project 65' stepside

[pharmd]

OK guys, I'm getting ready to start this project. The truck is a 65' step side c-10 that was my grandfathers (he passed away when I was 2yr old, so I never really knew him), it has 74K on it. The body is in decent shape, but its been sitting in our barn for the last 7yrs (while I finished undergrad and then while in pharmacy school). It originally came with 3 on the tree, in-line 6, 12 bolt with 4.10 gear, heater, am radio. It is the "red" color (which is orange in reality). While I was in high school, I redid the bed, the rear frame, worked some on the body up front, I pulled the 6 and put in a 355 with 327 (325hp) heads (milled 9.5:1 cr), edlebrock performer rpm cam, performer rpm intake, 750 carb, headers, h pipe, flowmasters, true dual 2.5", built TH350 tranny with coan 3000stall. The truck did pretty good for me back then, I drove it quite a bit. It ran good and sounded great.

Now, its in disarray though, and even though, I want to do a "fairly" budget build. Here is the game plan.

Theme: Rat Rod Shop Truck (heavily influenced by pro-touring)

Engine: LSX motor (a full pull engine, tranny (4L80), ecm, tcm, harness) out of a junk yard truck or car. Add a decent cam, "maybe" a set of heads, headers and a stall and be done. Upgraded radiator probably necessary with efans. looking for 450rwhp thru auto so needs really to be a 6.0L or bigger.

Suspension: For now a traditional lowered setup (not bagged). Using parts from ECE, CPP etc, to accomplish a 4/6 drop, C notch in rear, front end rebuild kit.

Brakes: a 13" rotor kit with crossdrilled disks all around, stainless lines.

Steering: Power would be nice.

A/C: maybe, havent decided yet.

Rearend: rebuilt 12 bolt, add a 3.73 (maybe), add posi unit.

Wheels/tires: havent' decided yet, but they will be 20's at least, with a 40-50 series tire probably...maybe staggard on diameter, definitly staggard width (OK, maybe). Nice wheels, but IDK if I can afford a boze type wheel or not, just have to see where the budget is. This will be one of the last purchases, as we kind of want to see (after its painted) what the truck really wants.

Body: new fenders, new grill, grill support, front and rear bumper, and "maybe" door skins. Cab will need some decent metal work, and bed needs to be sanded and primed. Wood boards need to be refinished, and stainless strips added, as well as a spot for the fuel filler for fuel cell.
Truck will have flat black base coat, flat red 2nd coat, flat "orange" ie original red 3rd coat, then sanded down in strategic area's to look distressed.

Ancillary: remove gas tank from interior, put fuel cell under bed, added fuel injection pump. Added retro radio and speakers. add carpet or vinyl floor mat, build console and cover with material, add steering wheel (if we do P/S). Currently has buckets from 92' Olds Achieva....looking to find a wrecked TBSS and get the 2 front buckets out of that (maybe even the console) b/c the seatbelts are built into the seat.

This is the game plan.

What I need are thoughts on this. What hangups do you forsee with my game plan? What options, should I look to change? Alot of you have done a similar build many times over, help a resto newbie out here. I want this to be a project my dad and I can do together some (our relationship is not the greatest, and he is getting older, and I'd really like to make this something we can spend some quality time on, and repair/build our relationship with).

Also, there are several companies that do the brakes, steering, suspension/drop....CPP, ECE, POL, Brothers, McGaughy's...WTF do I do???

ECE has great service, but I see alot of folks that run a mixture of their stuff with CPP stuff. I read where McGaugh's 13" brake kit had fitment issues, so should I knock them off the list? What about POL's stuff? Looks like Brothers stuff is middle of the road quality, but decently priced... I can go ahead an buy the brakes, suspension, steering etc, but on this I am really confused...I would just go straight with all ECE stuff because everyone raves about their service...but I see SOOO many trucks who have used bits and peices of CPP as well. Are their some parts that CPP just does better or what...

Sorry to ramble, but I am chomping at the bit to get started, and just don't want to start on the wrong foot. Part of my issue with my dad is 1) they never really let me do auto mechanics type stuff when I was younger because they pushed me towards hard classes and pre-college stuff...so 2) he thinks I don't know anything about this stuff, only what people tell me (he things I only dream big, but can't do anything)....so I'd love to prove him wrong, and pull this thing off...if I buy a bunch of parts that don't fit, or are just plain wrong, all it will do is prove him right...that's why I'm here.

Thanks in advance!