A few months ago I was working as a rep in the Automotive industry when I asked a few questions at a panel shop were a FC van was being painted.
the story was that the car was going to be set up for drag racing and didnt have to be of show quality, there job was to squirt on a couple of coats of 2K, I was quite suprised when he said it was"only 5 grand considering they recieved the car already prepped.
alot of panel shops now are smash repairers not panel beaters, they dont really like getting involved with this sort of work when they are used to pulling of damaged panels and replacing them with new ones and they are usually paid buy insurance companies. It would probably be better to spend a bit more going somewere that a car you know has been done or somewere were you can see that they have a interest in these cars.
I painted my car my self, origionally I painted it all white and it cost around $120 wich was pretty good considering it was a rough car painted with house paint and it was my first time with a spray gun.
a year later I had enough money to make it two tone and used 3L of acrylic white with green blue tinter and 3L of clear, I spent about 50 hours in cutting and buffing with 5 grades of 3M and sia pol compound till I had the shiniest light blue I had ever seen. Unfortunately I smashed the front of the car pretty bad and ended up giving it a quick respray for a school formal that had been booked before the accident, actually it cost me less than $400 to repair it and most of that money was for new chrome wich the car was never treated to before.
Shortly after my boss smashed his volvo into my car while it was parked at work, the next day my first son was born and I needed it back on the road quick, since I had know time that week I let it go to a panel shop were they made even more mess of the car and I ended up picking the car up unfinished before things got worse, at first I talked them into re doing it becuase the welded and filled the gap between the stone tray and guard on one side, that said it wasnt worth worrying about because it was a old car and even told me I should be looking at updating, this caused me to loose all faith in ever letting anyone else touch my car and I doubt that anyone is ever gonna touch again.
If you dont think you have the know how to DIY some TAFE colleges run short courses at night for vehicle painting and restoration, this is also a good place to prep your worse panels under professional supervision, you could probably get a bit of gear and pay for the course, materials required and hire a booth of a small panel shop for less than half the price of getting someone else to squirt it.
its a good way to bond with your pride and joy and the end result is much more satisfying even though you would have probably rubbed the finger prints of your finger tips. Even if your time is worth $60 an hour at least you can say you did it
you can sort of see how my car came up at my site
http://www.geocities.com/fccool59/
