2 cents more from me. I'm brand new to Savages but I've been reading about them for years. As an AR guy with unfinished uppers and lowers you are already into the fun of modular. It gets even better with a Savage; but the very attainable goal becomes creating a wickedly accurate rifle by NOT spending $1000. Many have already shared their experiences of building rifles or changing existing rifles simply by shopping this site's classifieds section. My personal opinion is that you're on the right track with going down big honkin jeep's checklist. You can easily throw $1000 + towards this project or any other; but with your Savage you can have AR type fun while you tinker and achieve $1000 performance for much less.

Have fun and welcome aboard!