[turp mcspray]

Body and paint work is one area where you deffinitly get what you pay for. Paint job A is nicer than paint job B. It's not so much that painter A is better than painter B. Painter A probably spent more time on it than painter B. A lot of people seem to think that the $5000 job and the $30,000 job took the same amount of time to do and one guy is charging more because he is better at it. Unless he is a crook, it ain't so!
In my shop, I approach every job the same...If this was my car/truck and I am going to keep it forever, and never want to have to redo it because it is falling apart, how would I do it? Taking this approach means there a LOT of extra details that must be addressed that the average person will not see and therefor can't understand how so much time could have been spent on it. All this = more time which = more money. A couple years ago I did a 55 chevy pickup for a guy that was going to give it to his son. Therefor he wanted it as cheap as I could do it without it falling apart in a short time. I cut every corner I could without being ashamed to say I did the truck. I STILL spent 300 hours on it. Normally I would figure 400 hours on a truck. That being said He spent $15,000 on what I would consider a low end job from my shop. Yes...people think I'm crazy and high priced but NOBODY has EVER came back because their car was falling apart! I figure anybody can do an average job. I have always wanted to be the known as being the BEST guy. When some tells me they just want an average type of job I tell them, if you don't want me to the the best job that I can go somewhere else.
There are lots of different levels or grades of jobs. Body and paint is THE most time consuming part of any vehicle build, and the most noticeable. If you have $100,000 car with a turd paint job, people will see your car as a turd!
Just my view from behind the paint gun!