A little help for a new hot rodder!!

Hi guys, im a new member to the forum, im from ireland, living in New york for the summer, heading back home in september. Im 21 and since getting here in June iv taken a real interest in American cars and thier culture, particularly hot rods.
Im a autobody repairer by trade as well as importing japanese sports cars and selling them. I would like to start importing American cars like the mustangs, dodge vipers and maybe hot rods too if i could find a buyer.

Anyway enough about my life story, what i would really like to do is get into the hot rod scene and was thinking of starting by building some type of kit car. I realise that i cant just jump in at the deep end and expect to know everything so i was thinking if i could find a complete 'build-it-yourself' kit, with EVERYTHING i need in one kit. Is this type of package even available and if so what would you guys recomend? My price limit is about $15000, I would be building and painting it all myself so labour costs arnt an issue.
Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks in Advance,

Dee