Paid to restore a car.... Questions.

The only bad thing is "basic" can turn to "catastrophe" in a split second. I wouldn't even begin ballparking that thing until it's blasted, and there's no point in putting paint on top of what's there. Strip the trim and take it down to Eudora. They have a blast booth you can rent by the hour, day, week, or whatever. There's still a ton of prep work in disassembly, stripping, sanding, blocking, priming, edging, and everything that goes with a paint job. Have fun with it. It'll be good to see another old car running locally. Seems like nobody has them out right now.