Just sent my Ghia off to paint

So, I just sent my Ghia off to get a daily driver paint job, and the bodyman says three weeks for it to be done. Now, the body was pretty smooth to start, but does three weeks sound normal just for paint? Also, is it normal to be completely preoccupied thinking about my car when I can't actually see it at home anymore for a while, or am I just weird?

[AggieDave]

Three weeks may be a conservative estimate from your paint/body guy. Even if the body is "straight" its not straight enough for paint. You still have a lot of blocking and sanding, then more primer layers with sanding. A "straight" car could easily take 100 man hours in prep for the final sprays of the color, followed by the layers of clear and further sanding and buffing.

When it comes to paint, going with a cheaper and quicker alternative may save you money now. You might even get a paint job that looks decent now, but in 5 years when your paint looks like crap and you have to repaint...well, you just lost your money and time savings.

There's also a lot of details that the cheaper/faster shop will skimp on. Not just the obvious prep time, work and such. Things like the masking process and fixing any sheetmetal that needs to be massaged.

When I had my '73 done there was some extra body work (dechroming, fixing some rust and some straightening of some sheetmetal), but I remember it taking about 5 weeks of work.