Did not end up with a parts car to part out, owing to a special deal I made with another forum member to take title to the parts car for next to nothing in exchange for towing it for me.

Regarging Maaco paint, I don't expect much (I was being sarcastic when I said it was near-MB-spec), but I have two things in my favor. First, most of these low end shops (Miracle, etc.) generally use decent if inexpensive paint and apply it OK, but just skimp on the prep. To guard against shoddy prep, I paid my inexpensive body guy to prep the whole car *before* I took it to Maaco, so their paint ought to stick even if they don't do much prep themselves. Second, I picked a specific Maaco quite some distance away from me because my same body guy has had four cars done at that specific shop with the same "quality" of paint (same Maaco job) and none of them have flaked in two years and counting. Oh, yeah. And Maaco corporate was advertising a "half off" deal so I was $500 out the door even with their "higher end" job. I knew I wasn't going to put a $2,500 paint job on a $3,500 car I just sank another $3,000 into, but I think I'll get my $500 worth of shine out of Maaco. I'll let you know how it comes out.