Need help with first full fab job

Hey y'all. I'm new here, but by all means not new to off-roading. I've done bolt on mods and other performance add-ons to a truck i had and totaled over the MD blizzard this year... ANYWAY my buddy and i want to build a truck/car for storm chasing. Since he's the weather dude and I'm the mechanic I'll probably be doing most (aka all) the fab work. I have a basic idea of what i need and what to do, but that's as far as i've got in the planning. I'm thinking of building a race ready, road legal truck, obviously with armor.

I'm thinking of getting a used and cheap 4x4 truck (and probably beat up or a junkyard wreak) since we want to keep costs down and since most of it will be replaced with new stuff. Scraping the engine and adding a high horsepower Edlebrock engine. Doing a full body roll-cage with steel plates over certain areas for protection from debris, probably adding thicker windows with steel mesh over them. Some kind of racing seats with 5-8 point safety harnesses. A custom fabbed snorkel. Two winches (one in front one in the rear never know what you might get into).

And that's where my plans end... I was hoping to do the same suspension as the off-road race trucks i saw on SPEED once (don't get the channel at home so i usually only get to see it at the sports bar), since i don't really need the extra height but i have no idea how to do that, nor do i know what to do with the rest of the drive-train and everything else... I have very little experience with welding so welding tips would also be great. I need speed and strength. Any help?