You'll get a lot of **** for using the RATROD word around here, but welcome to the site anyways. As far as your car goes, shoot up a couple of picture and just wait for the ideas to fly. Consider condition, availability of parts and your over-all budget. If you have money setaside for a build....you might as well double or tripple it, building a car is not cheap.
No worries, you'll find a lot of good info here....along with a lot of "traditional snobs", A-holes and just plain touchy people. Give it time and you'll get more knowlage and info then you ever needed.
There is a lot of good info on here. Read all the info in the stickys on how to post and so on. Lots of good people on here that are always glad to help but of course there are always those that love to bash a newbie because of using the wrong terminolgy. Pay no mind to them and enjoy the site.