Well the trick is to do a lot of the body prep yourself. Ie remove everything. The shop I want to have my car done at insists on pulling all the panals off the car themselves and spraying them then re mounting. High end shop, told them I want a MB quality job he said thats how it needs to be done. That way at least they can spray the door jams real well.
The part that is expensive is replacing all the chrome around the windows, on the trunk, new grill. Door and window seals are up their as well. I bet replacing all that stuff costs 30% of the whole job.
As you know perfection doesn't come cheap, but its so worth it!
