Modifying stock firmware I would like to modify the stock firmware to remove certain apps which i do not want to have available on my phone.

The source code for my phone is available on the Samsung website but there is no information on how one goes about in actually customizing building and installing it.

For an open source project its kind of weird that the information is not readily available on a quick google.

Any pointers to howtos or articles would be highly appreciated.
Apart from the AOSP code that Google provides, Android devices also require lots of device specific code, especially kernel, GPU drivers, radios etc. These are released by the manufacturer some time after the official update is out. 4.2 source is out only for some of Nexus devices yet (and not all of them).

Nexus devices are the easiest to build custom ROMs on, for obvious reasons. If your device source is released, you can find specific guides for devices - like Nexus 7 Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S(which I use), Kindle HD etc. Google "compile jellybean from source" and you will get guides for your device (4.1 for now).