a good paint job starts at about $2500 - $2800. this is normally for one color, or duplicoat, or tricoat (mixture of several colors like your sonic blue's, mystichromes, green/blue color changing (like seen on the 98 Chevy PU truck w/ shortbed), that's a very pretty color.
more expensive paint jobs are normally your designs, flames, intricate details that take a lot of time, and can cost anywhere from $5,000 - $1,000,000
totally strip all the paint off the car, and fix any scratches, rock chips, gouges, dents, waves, ripples, cracks, etc, prime the car, block it, prime, block, prime, block, to get everything totally straight.
then prime final coat, and put on coats of paint with clear. then the wet sanding starts. if the guy who does the wet sanding is any good, then you're paint job will come out better than showroom if he's not it will have tons of tiny micro surface scratches that you will be able to see.
you can ask for clear paint independently of your regular basecoat, at least 1 or 2 good coats can really help seal the basecoat even better, and preserve a longer lasting paint job.
some painters will tell you that's not true, but that's because they don't want to do the extra work.
a good paint job will usually take 3 - 5 weeks.
maaco paint jobs are only recommended if you need to fix cosmetic damage and sell a couple quickly...they can cost about $299 and up...but dont expect them to last longer than 4 years.
