help me find auto-paint service

i hear earl scheib do the worst painting ever so im not going there... i'm planning to get my car painted deserted silver metallic, black or repainted (grey) however i dont really know any places around here in the bay area that does an excellent job on painting ya car. i will spend as much as 1500-2500 for the paint job, is that good enough? any comments? and also, do they paint the on both sides of the hood (topn and bottom) or engine bay as well (not the engine and etc) cuz it seems more work...removing the engine and painting it.. but it wouldnt look nice to have a good paint on the outside but when you pop up your hood, it's a totally different color. how much more labor would that be? and molding the sides off will cost a lot? i appreciate if someone answer these questions.

go to a place that offers long time warrenty, or if not try a dealership

from your pics your paint looks fine, but anyways im saving up for a paint job and my friend has a shop where hes going to hook me up. it was fix little dents outside and paint for $1000, or fix dents, shave door moldings etc and im pretty sure paint inside door jambs for $1500. that price sounded pretty nice to me, is that about accurate? anyways, heres the shop info.

auto collision center
6436 foothill blvd.
oakland, ca 94605
510-635-5441

if you decide to check it out, let me know what they quoted you, because im pretty sure my friend hooked me up on a cheaper price, but not sure by how much.

simpleazn, i found some of your stuff on craigslist, am i right? thanks for the info man

I dont know much about cali since i dont live there, but 1500-2500 seems like it should get you a decent paint job, around here, 2500 would get you a nice job, say if you went a custom place they would take apart the car and paint each piece individually. my dad paid about that much to get every inch of a suburbon painted, it looked great too. just my .02

my friend here in southern la is going to start paintin my car in a few weeks. what he's doin for my car is:
shaving door molding
shaving rear emblems
installing body kit
painting car and body kit
he warranties all of his work to me and he does damn good work
all of this he is doing in 2 1/2 weeks and for $1700. im staying with the same color just my paint right now is flaking and he has to sand it all down and start over. i know im getting a damn good price but that is because he is my friend. he said a job like this he would normally charge $2300. so you can look to spend about in that area if you are looking to get a good job done.

how is your friend going about shaving the moldings? the reason my molding job jumps price so much is because they were going to weld and sand the holes which is the right way i have heard. because if you just use boddy filler/bondo, the molding holes will eventually show in the sun and crack because of all the door vibration. if you see integras on the street with shaved moldings, loook closely and you will probably see the little square holes which means that they just bondo'd it which anybody can do. also is your friend going to use an oven on your car? i was iffy to spend $1500 even though i know that its a pretty nice price compared to other places, but i know that they do quality work. oh yeah thats my stuff on craigslist too, you want a bomex kit? hahaha how about a stock spoiler to accent your car? jk