Custom paint job

First of all, let me say that I am glad that I found this site. My question deals with custom painting. Where is the best place to go to have your car custom painted? Would your local paint shops be sufficient? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I had mine done about 1 1/2 months ago (you can't tell by the picture below, I took it with my camera phone). Anyway....I just found a very well recommended paint shop in my area and talked to them. I also got really friendly with the local PPG/HOC dealer. They were willing to spray out about 5 or 6 different custom colors for me to compare with the existing color and see if I liked the match with my top (It's amazing what people will do for a case of beer). The painter at the body shop offered to primer an old body panel and then shoot it with the new paint so I could once again compare it with the top/interior (the spray out panels aren't very big, but it helps). All in all, it took about 1 month to pick out the paint and about 5 weeks to do the job. They stripped the entire car (down to the metal) fixed every dent ding and imperfection and then painted everything. It was about 4k all said and done. It might seem high but it looks fucking incredible. They removed the hood, trunk lid, doors, front and rear bumpers, wing and the side skirts and painted all of them separately (something to look for when choosing a body shop). Anyway, sorry for the long post...good luck!! Let us know how you make out!

Thanks a lot for the reply. I will check around at the local shops to see what they have to say. I may take a while to decide on what I want. I have an idea of the paint design that I want but I need to find someone to sketch it out. I'll definitely post pics once I get it done. Again, thanks for the info.