Welcome Craig. Your history and intentions are the same as mine but swap Datsun forTR7V8, just sold. Here's my build thread
http://www.gt40s.com/forum/builders-...atchbuilt.html
The questions you are asking basically come down to personal preferences and how much money you want spend. You'll get lots of suggestions and a few hours on the search function on this site will give you an overload of information to answer most of your questions. It's all been covered before.
We try to contain thread drift on this site so suggest you start a new thread in a suitable section, and post a link to it here.
Cheers,
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Russ
° Scratchbuild. Spaceframe Mk1 wide body. Dry sumped, forged, 351W. LSD930. 10's & 14's.
Most parts now sourced. Body 80% done. Chassis, rollcage 95% finished. Suspension 70% built. Engine starting to build, and trans in a million pieces.
http://www.gt40s.com/forum/gt40-buil...atchbuilt.html