You're right it has been done to death. You only need a visa for training, not hour building/flying holiday. To get an FAA airman cert based on your CAA/JAA PPL you need to go through various hoops (ie, apply to a specfic US FSDO and pay the CAA to confirm you are who you say you are). I'm sure some kind person will post you a link to the forms.
Then it's just a BFR and away you go.