I used to get price comparisons when I owned the restoration shop. Guys would come to me and ask for a restoration. Mind you this was over ten years ago when the price of materials was lower. It was an easy $10,000 just to strip the car down to a rolling shell, take it back to bare metal, and paint it. Rust repair, parts, panels cost extra. Wanted it on the rotisserie? Cost another $5000 just to bolt it up. Again, parts, panels, rust, repair cost extra. Engine and suspension detailing cost extra. Rebuilding engine and transmission? Even more. Interior and soft trim detailing was included in the cost. Interior and soft trim replacement and repair cost extra.
There was always related parts cost. Why go through all that work to reuse dry rotted weatherstripping or cat whiskers that had been taking a beating for 30 years? And the customer always wanted chroming and trim restoration. A cosmetic restoration could easily turn into $15-$20K worth of work. A full boogey rotisserie restoration could easily turn into $30-$50K.
These guys would go to a body shop and get a quote for a paint job for $2-3K and then come back to me and ask why I was so expensive. I'd always ask 'em, "why is the other guy so cheap?" A lot of times I wouldn't be able to buy all the paint materials I would use in a restoration for $2-3K and put it in the trunk of the car.
Body work is a time consuming job, especially when you're dealing with someone who expects the benefits of the cost. Since I was charging ten grand, no expected tape lines (as a matter of fact, even for a basic paint job I still will tape as little as possible. Tape lines leave a hard line that will peel. Best job is to remove anything you have to tape... including glass.), body panels with "perfect" alignment (within exception... headlight buckets on an early Mustang never fit and when you see one in the magazines that do... the fender has seriously been messaged.) And then you get into warranties. Most body shops will not guarantee rust repair. I did. I was never a bondo shop. Filler should be used only at the absolute minimum (like filling the odd grinder mark... to take the wave out of a panel out came the necessary body tools). Why? Because even at a minimum, filler will crack under extreme weather conditions. (Most guys don't have heated showrooms to display a car in.)
I gotta stop writing now... It's making me wanna run to the bank and borrow money to open another restoration shop.