New to drag racing. Need advice.

A lot of good advice, and some of it is the way I would approach things. Determine what you have right now. Get the engine tuned right, check over the trans, the drive line. Do you even know what shocks you have, if they're still good? Lots of advice about throwing tons of money at it "right now", and while that may be what you end up having to do to get it where you want it to be, what's wrong with sticking with what you have, and see what you can do? I bet the previous owner did alright with it before he moved on to other things and parked it. And obviously you haven't matched his luck with it. Sort what you have before blowing cash, then go from there. That is your best bang for your buck.