Live and learn-- Sorry.
Always the best is to ask other racers "who did your paint and how much ?"
I saw a nice paint job on a racers car, asked the owner the above question, gave me the guys number and as it turned out he painted them in his garage after work (truck driver) to help subsidize his racing. Now this was 20 years ago but I paid $750 for a multi colored paint job - everything including cowel art, striping and lettering. Was the paint Pebble Beach perfect--NO, there were some flaws and misteps along the way, but not enough to worry about because even in a drag race enviorment, these cars get beat-up.