[mr48chev]

I have to agree, If you are spraying it yourself you don't want to start out with metallic paint. It is too easy to get jail bars in the paint where you didn't get the metallic to lay even.

I'd talk to the local guys as to where they buy their paint. There is usually one or two go to places for car guys in most areas.

My buddy used to mix my paint at the NAPA store he worked at for years or have one of the other guys mix it. Their Martin Senior paint is pretty decent paint.

Sometimes almost the same shade of the same color can have a big price difference and especially with red. These days you might be looking at a huge difference in price between some colors that almost look exactly alike.

Cost wise the closest Maaco to me is said to do a pretty decent job on rigs that have the bodywork already done and are stripped to the bare body shell trim wise. Their issue for most of their shops has been in their skimpy prep work on jobs that hadn't already had prep work in that they used to allow X minutes for sanding and prep and X minutes to tape the rig before it hit the paint booth.

Another thing, almost every town has a "local gun" who will shoot your already prepped and taped car with his gun for a nominal price. Those guys almost always have day jobs in bodyshops and take on side jobs. Or if you have shops that rebuild wrecks for gypo car lots they might shoot the truck if you have the trim and bumpers stripped off so all they have to do is minimum prep and paint. One shop here in town does a lot of that and their paint jobs look as good or better than show room new.
I may go there or one of my daughter's girl friends is a trained custom painter who has done a number of show winning lowriders in the past.