I'm all for dreaming dude. I have also dreamt about, and spent a lot of time researching, turbo setups on my NA. If you actually need a reliable car right now, my best advice would be to turn this into a reliable driver first. Get it running and shifting correctly so you can always get into work and make that paper for your new ride. Once you've got it running like a champ start buffing the heck out of it and getting the cosmetics back in shape.
Also, try to stay practical. If a used engine or transmission are almost as cheap as buying all the tools and rebuilding yours, sometimes its best to just get the package deal. I'd love to try rebuilding a transmission or engine but I'm not going to do to my daily driver and risk not making it into work.
I do like your enthusiasm though - don't lose that.
Haha.