I agree with the well thought out and planned part. This would be different than the bumper. My bumper is easily removed, takes less than 2 minutes, so if I screw it up or don't like it, not a huge deal to recover from. The exo on the other hand would be very time consuming and not easily removed. You just have to trust me on that one, it would be a drawn out job, not a learn as I go like my other project.
I have done no research on this, but I would probably use chromolly 1" or 1.5" tubing. That is where funding becomes a problem, that stuff is crazy expensive, and I have to special order it around here. So baby steps, but once the VX is paid off, I can start saving more pennies. I am not smart enough to do the SAS, but if I were modding, I would want the protection before the capability, kind of like upgrading brakes before upgrading the engine...just makes sense to me.