a12grunt is on the money.

Buy a full s13 or a half cut. I sourced parts from everywhere and now regret not just forking out 2k on a working s13 to use

however if you do EVERYTHING yourself you will save $$$ - I painted, welded, rewired, made my own crossmembers, made lots of little things to get around problems, and had good advice from someone who had done some of this stuff before.

this site has examples of nearly every type of build you could consider.

My advice, other than buy an s13 donour to start with, .... do it in stages that you can manage, finish those tasks and enjoy the fact that you got something done, plan plan plan.