"Has anyone completely re-painted their Z? Would a repaint be sufficient to restore it to new? I've heard many stories AGAINST repainting a car. That the paint jobs tends not to be as good as the original. That the new paint doesn't last as long, etc..etc.."

Painting a car is the biggest pain of a resto. The rust, the bodywork, panel alignment prep, and primer is only the tip of the iceberg. The finale is a perfectly executed ballet dance in the hot paint booth with a gun in one hand and the air hose in the other. Laying just enough paint on to get a high gloss, but no runs.

You get what you pay for!
A cheap job: may involve lots of bondo and no hammer/dolly work will probably use lacquer (read- air dry) based putty and primer will probably use straight enamel with no hardener ($30) Don't expect them to take off any emblems, only mask around them. Lacquer based products bleed out into the color coat. You can see the shadows. Lacquer expands and contracts with the weather, exposing all your bondo/putty spots next summer. Lacquer primer soaks up water like a sponge. Primering over bare metal with lacquer and then leaving it in the rain or dew is a no-no.

A quality job: PPG brand products from putty to primer to clear to polish. I'm talking about $500 in materials alone. Use featherweight bondo. Use catalyzed primer like K200 and K201 catalyst (cat) ($100/gal). Then comes the endless hours of wet sanding with 240 grit sandpaper ($25/50 sheets)-using longboards and palm sander. More K200, more sanding. Then on goes the sealer that matches your basecoat color. The basecoat (PPG Starbase, DBC, DCU) goes on next, followed by the urethane clear ($100 gal). The basecoat can run $25 /gal for white up to $166/gal for Dodge Viper Red. The modern paint guns use high velocity/low pressure to apply the paint with 10 % overspray, and they cost $700 ($100 Harbor Freight). Booth rental is $100 and up. Now add the labor for the skilled painter and bodyman. One screwup in the booth means color sanding and buffing (5-10 hours) to fix the run or dry spot. What happens if you pump the paint on too thick on a horizontal surface? The top layer skims over, dries, and the trapped solvents explode to the top. It's the automotive equivalent to acne, and its name is "Solvent Popping". What a mess. This happens in a hot booth to a heavy paint pumper. What happens if it goes on dry, as in no shine? If the clear is thick enough, the top dry coat can be removed by wet sanding with 1000-1500 grit paper (omigod expensive) then buffed with compounds for hours using a professional machine polisher. The thinners used for the basecoat and clearcoat are $25/gal. They come in different temperatures for your climate. The cat (hardener) comes in different speeds. Flex additive (what a joke- it only slows the curing down) is very expensive. It is used on rubber air dams and urethane bumpers. **A quality job will look just as good in the jambs as on the hood. I always pull the doors and hang them in the booth. It will increase the value of the car. If you use urethane clears, the paint will give like a rollerskate wheel when hit with a rock. Lacquer is out. You can't even buy it in CA, except as a precoat. HVLP guns are mandatory, and Big Brother EPA is everywhere. I hope this gives you some background on why paint jobs are so expensive. The new paints use "Isocranics" in the chemical makeup--IT CAN KILL YOU TO BREATHE IT. MEKP (FIBERGLASS HARDENER) WILL BLIND YOU IN 3 SECONDS IF IT MAKES EYE CONTACT. USE SAFETY EQUIPMENT!!! Hook up with a painter friend. Get a job at Earl Schieb as a tape boy. Ask questions at the Auto Paint store. Give it a try!