As has been said here before, the quality look of the paintjob will be the determined by the time spent on the prep work. Now I will say that I am as cheap as they come sometimes. But I have also grown to appreciate the time and effort that something takes just to finish it off with something that may not last, and end up spending time and effort again. My first repaint was on a 63 GMC. Scuffed the original paint, fixed the big dents, shot it with primer, didn't block it out, squirted a blue metallic acrylic enamel over it. Spent a lot of cash on the paint, picked a difficult color (dark blue) and a metallic to boot, just to have it flake off because the surface was not prepared correctly. Out of frustration, I went to TSC and bout a gallon of IH red and IH white, cleaned off the old paint, scuffed, cleaned it well, then re-shot that paint. it dulled and faded quickly, but is still stuck on there.
Through experience learned the hard way - time isn't cheap, and cheap paint/primer isn't cheap. Buy good stuff all the way through - filler, primer, paint, etc. I think in the end, you will be happier with the results. I typically use the Dupont shopline Nason because I have a buddy who works at a paint store and he always guide me in the right direction with products. By the way, he is in Bryan, which isn't too far from Palestine.
I also learned that the difference in a good job and a great job is the time spent on the prepwork. But that can be said about many things.
