Nice to see people get the reality of what a shop charges for paint/body. In Cali the labor rates are $100-140 per hr. So in your state that charges $3000 for a crap paint job it's double here if you can find that. I got quotes for $7500-$12k. $10-12k was for a decent job. And you complain about 15k for a running painted truck sheesh. The big difference is the person looking to buy one versus the person building it. I don't even see AC on the table anymore. AC systems aren't cheap to replace or restore. People upgrade them to modern day systems which cost a small fortune. Plenty of people used to remove their compressors for power gain, definitely not unusual. As stated from others some people just want to get their foot in the door with a running 40+ yo vintage square body truck. Have you priced a 2021 3/4 4x4 ?? The comparison is night and day to an older truck. And if you go on eBay people are paying $30k-$40k for nut and bolt resto trucks, so 15k is a drop in the bucket compared to them. Also consider why people pay more in smog states for pre smog trucks. You can either afford to build the 25-40k truck or you are buying into a half decent builder and throwing a ton on money at it. After you buy that beater 4x4 for $3000-$5000 now add your crappy $3000-$4000 pant job that will flake off in a year or better yet a $7500-$10,000 paint job, thousands more in parts let's see where you're at!
