Don't worry about your mechanical limitations! Don't measure them by what you know now, but what you'll know when your finished! You will make mistakes but you'll learn from them. Its sounds like you have the perfect vehicle, time frame and amount of cash for learning and experimenting. HAVE FUN!!

I too have a rusty (Formally rusty) old ford P/U. Although I have 25 years of ford experience, a pile of parts,an all ford Garage in the SW and a fair amount of resources, I was in a similar predicament a couple of years ago with my 78 ford F-150 4x4. I wanted to turn my daily driver into a mobile service truck with some advertising appeal. After trial and much error I found the combo I needed. 525 H.P daily driver w/ E.T s of 13.35, 13.56 and 13.59. When experience and resources failed, I went with my drive to accomplish something I’ve never done, and it paid off. You might try the same.

P.S.

People DO ask whats under the hood !