Not much research needed. Get a good lower, like one from Engage Armament. Then start getting parts. Make sure you have an idea of what you want it to look like and what you want it to be capable of, before you buy parts. It really isn't that hard, once you start narrowing down the choices or have a master plan to follow.
And there lies the problem, don't bust my chops too hard for this. But I was fascinated with AKMs from when I was younger and seen lord of war. So between handguns and AKMs that's been my main focus and cheap shooting. All of my gun friends are into glocks , HK, and ARs. But they try to bust my pockets every time I bring up a build. I'm a simple kinda guy all I need is nice optics and a gun that's going to accurately shoot and be as reliable as possible. Though I like to keep my guns simplistic I do want quality parts. To even get into the basic logistics of AR it's a lot of learning I need to do that's why I just was going to get my brother a little cheapo AR and me a better quality and compare them to see what I would want out of a build..