I feel compelled to add on to this post since I do this type of work. One thing that I have seen as a trend the last several years is, many people think that those that do this type of work, shouldn't be paid accordingly for what they know. On average, I end up with between 100-120 hours in a body/paint job. That's dialing in gaps, and filler work, blocking, and final color sanding/polish. Rust repair is a separate deal as is any disassembly or reassembly. Some times there will be less hours, sometimes more. I use those numbers as a general guide.
Doing this work on these cars is a specialty and people have higher expectations that your run of the mill 2015 Honda in for a fender bender. The body has to be right before it's painted. Also remember, whoever is doing the work, the car is their business card. That's their name on it and most restoration specialists are not going to sacrifice their reputation for the sake of doing a cheap job. I've turned several people away for this very reason. Second, the cost of quality materials is constantly going up. I am dropping a 67 off to my painter this weekend, just the cost to have it sprayed is $4800. I am giving it to him ready to paint.
When I agree to do a body job, I discuss it with the car owner and give them an idea of what to expect in terms of cost, but due to the nature of how it's done on old cars, I never quote a price. It's not fair to the car owner or shop owner IMO. I charge by time plus materials and keep the car owner updated as it progresses.
Now all of this is not to say there aren't shady shops out there that take old car owners for a ride and leave them dry, there are, I've been victim to it. That's what made me get into doing it for myself, then it morphed into a full blown business.
It's simply not cheap to have this work done at this point in time, and likely never will be again.