Sounds very similar to my situation. My car was checked on the roof, hood, and trunk lid pretty badly. What we are doing is, sanding out the checked areas (basically the whole top of the car), doing a small amount of sanding on the sides, and then painting over the old paint. As long as the old paint isn't checked, you can paint over it. The only problem is that you can't paint over laquer with base/clear. So, we are doing it just like GM did, single stage laquer!! I am also taking all of the trim pieces, etc, of the car and putting them all back on to try to save on some dough!! The guy painting my car, Pat, is a really nice guy. He lets me hang in the shop and use his tools, even when he's not there!! If you want, send me some detailed pics and I'll ask him about it. As far as time lengths go, he likes to do a good job and get it out of the shop so he doesn't have to think about it!! Therefore, it wouldn't be one of those PUT IT IN THE CORNER FOR NOW situations! After he is done with my car, he will be doing some minor touch-ups for my friends truck. After that, I'm sure it's fare game if you are willing to come down here with it!!
jdpolzin@yahoo.com -----Jeremy