[t walgamuth]

Some of the guys have been a little brutal with their answers but they do make some good points.

I'd recommend buying someone else's unfinished project cobra and start from there. Drive your little econobox while you are working on the project so you can keep your costs down.

Building completely from scratch is an immense project. It does not sound from your post that you have a lot of the skills necessary to do it successfully.

It sounds as if you have CAD skills. I suggest you try to put one on CAD as a start.