Check out my build thread.
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234327
I can definitely relate to you and your dad wanting to do what you can yourselves. My son and I have a few projects going. Based on what I learned, If I were to break mods into 2 groups it would be as follows:
Phase 1: (approx 100HP gain)
Better heat exchanger
Cold Air Intake
90mm throttle body
Lower pulley
Fuel Injectors
Thermostat
Spark Plugs
Tune
Phase 2: (about another 100HP over phase 1)
Head porting
Supercharger porting
cam
headers
102mm throttle body
smaller upper pulley
Tune
Breaking it up in this way separates what requires digging into the engine more for phase 2. I was going to start small with a phased approach but once I turned the corner to porting my supercharger it just made sense to do it all at once so I missed Camaro 5 this year going slightly overboard my ZL1!
No regrets though. I'll have dyno numbers up soon...