Kelly, Don't let the talk of $20K paintjobs scare you off. I did my own body prep, it took 6 months, and did a two color job with clear coat at Miracle for $3400.
Now before all you rich guys begin to scream, many people have said that it looks great and so far it has held up fine.
I did take it to the paint shop without any windows, lights, body hold downs etc. so the car was completely ready to apply primer apon arrival. I also masked the car myself at the paint shop.
The painter used paint that I picked out, BMW colors and the same BMW paint brand, and I had it back home in 2 weeks.
Thats another thing, if you have someone do it all be prepaired for them to have your car for six months or more. If you don't believe me just ask these other guys how long their car was at the body/paint guy. This alone is worth thinking about doing the prep youself.
So.... you can do these cars without spending the cost of the drivetrain on a paintjob but you will need to do most of the hard work youself.
I would do the body/paint work first if I did another car. This will avoid all the dust cleanup of all your nice new parts. Just assemble the roller, fit everything to do with the body, take it all apart again and haul the stripped roller down to the paint guy.
Lastly, if you drive the damn thing a lot on the street the paint WILL get dinged up. These cars are low and everything thrown up by cars in front of you WILL hit you. So a buget paintjob will feel better with a few dings in it.