Advice from the pro painters?, Lead times. Options

[mbseto]

I'm hoping to have a professional paint my car, and now that I am on a more strict schedule, I should probably get some information on going about this...

So my hope is to send it out to be blasted and painted. What kind of lead times should I expect? How far in advance should I be talking to a shop about getting the car in and done? What kind of schedule creep is typical?

Thank for the input... If it matters, I'm building a daily driver, not a show car, and my goals for the paint job are first to have modern rust-proofing, and second to have something nice but able to see normal wear and tear of driving to work, etc.

[76-914]

Do it. Paint it yourself (unless it's black or a metallic). I've never shot 2 stage but I hear that is the way to go and is so easy it is often referred to as beginner's paint. If your willing to shoot early in the AM before the bugs come out, you won't need a paint booth. Or, rent a pro paint booth from a small independent body shop. I prep'd my Ghia to paint ready stage ( I thought) then hung by the body shop next to me until their ACE left. I followed him home (yeah I know, stalker lol) and asked how much to shoot it on the side. He "re-prepped" it (thank goodness) and shot the paint for $1200. I bought all materials & paint. That was north of a $1000. Booth rental was $450. Ended up with an $8K paint job for $3000. So you can save some but it is a PITA. It was beautiful. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif) I shot my '76 914 myself. It's nice but not beautiful. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)