+1 for mid-engine loving.
First, nice car. I'm a MR2 Spyder man myself. I was a WRX fan for a while, but now I think I only want mid-engine cars. A few questions though, hopefully you can help me out:
1. How many coats of paint did you get? I mean, primer, base and clearcoat. I understand the more coats, the more money. $3K sounds right for a good job.
2. Would the price have varied if you went with a two-tone look? I want to get my car painted in a year or so after I kit it, and I wanted to go with a two-tone look. Like black and red with some white trimlines or something. I didn't know if they charged a lot more for that or not.
3. How long did the actual painting process take? You said you were two months away from your car, but it can't be 2 months to paint.
The exterior is the last thing I'll change on the car. Suspension should be done by Febuary at the latest. A turbo and other engine stuff by early-Fall, and then I'll go with a kit and paint after that. I remember our Formula SAE team painted our car ourselves. We just shielded off this room with plywood and then airbrushed a few coats with some clearcoat on top. Cheap and easy. I think I could so my car the same. Take one body panel at a time, spend a few hundred dollars getting a decent airbrush and compressor off eBay, and paint it myself. But I didn't know if there were special things done to cure automotive paint or whatever. But since everyone seems to say that a good paintjob costs in the ballpark of $3-8K, I don't know if getting it professionally done is my best option. You obviously watched them paint it. How difficult did it look? I mean, this doesn't exactly look like rocket science:
Anyway, awesome job. I like the color, and I love mid-engine cars. Hope you can keep that car looking good for longer. It's usually some other jackass that causes you problems. PEACE.