I also thought a while before responding...
First off I enjoy helping people who are willing to help themselves and who if still confused can ask good questions. I hope that my past and future post and advice to you and others confirms that.
Now here's my opinion of the situation...
I'd say that you are indeed trying to jump in way way over your head. Before preceding with any of your proposed modifications you or anyone else would need a more than basic understanding of vehicles and all their systems and components as well as fabricating and machine shop practices. Ideally you'll also have more than basic skills and the experience to go along with that understanding.
This takes time and baby steps, I know because I've been there, and it's fun. Opening up a project with big dreams and little understanding or skill is not fun, I've been in over my head too.
All this talk on the forums of "swapping" parts around is nice.. or converting to get disc brakes, diesel engines, power steering, the list is quite long... my point is it's quite easy to read about. Problem is until you understand what's involved with any of those and even when you do they can be lots and lots of work, figuring, money, and time, lots of time. Making these changes on a basically one off basis is not easy, simple, or likely to be cheap; we're not playing with Lego's where everything fits everything else, or corvettes with a long list of aftermarket parts/improvements ready to buy and bolt on. This stuff is trial and error and ingenuity, takes understanding to make it work, a lot more that just saying "I'll swap a 6BT in there".
For example I've had a whole lot to learn and I tend to learn this stuff pretty quick.. I was very good with engines by the time I got out of high school, as a sophomore in VICA competitions (now SkillsUSA) competing against juniors and seniors I placed first in the state for small engines and 4th in the nation. I learned a whole lot from my shop teacher, from reading the manuals, from working on things with my hands, and absolutely nothing from reading forums.
A 4 year machinist apprenticeship later and I finally felt comfortable doing the from scratch disc brake conversion on my 1 ton, and I'll admit I learned most of that as I went. Then a few years later I started on the diesel engine swap and while it's basically done now 5 years after that there are hundreds of not thousands of little details and steps left before I have an essentially finished and usable truck. Not to mention the money it's taken and will still take to get there.
In short the truck you describe may certainly be achievable but not for a novice and not without several years worth of work, or piles of money to speed that up and or hire the work done for you.
If it's something you're really interested in I know from my experience that learning about and using the "stock" truck as it is for a few years can allow your understanding and skills to grow in hopes of catching up with your dreams.... but they never quite will and that's the fun part, you'll always learn something new.
Grigg
