Finding a painter to shoot color...

The Maaco quote is strange. They are usually ~$500 for a 2 part polyurethane winter special. But painting a shell is ~4x the paint and more effort to get in all the crevices than just an exterior paint job. You don't need perfection in the engine bay, trunk, etc, so maybe you could do that and pay less for just an exterior spray. You could roll & tip 1-part poly yourself there and save a lot. I used Interlux Brightsides, and may even use for the exterior.