The paint on the car is not thick at all. 4 coats of paint that i sprayed on the 71 beetle midnight blue car (1 initial tack coat, 2 medium, and 1 flash coat to get the metalic uniform)used just over a can of paint with a HVLP gun on a beetle (they don't get smaller than that!!!) plus take into acount that about 1/3 is reducer. i used about 3/4 of a can on the charger, the paint is really thin. like i said eairler, you only cover up the bodywork, underlying color until after the 4th coat, keep in mind that there is wet sanding in between each 2 coats. The charger is at least twice the surface area of the beetle, the paint on the 71 beetle is thicker than the paint on the charger and the 74 orange beetle. regarding the shine, if i spent 2 more days wetsanding and buffing the shine would be that of any professional single stage paint job on the charger. that being said like i mentioned earlier it depends on what YOU want out of the paint job, the thread topic is "paint job on a budget" and that is exactly what it is, plus i'm not paranoid about doing a dukes of hazzard drift on a dirt road and worrying about my precious paint. the car gets driven alot, and hard, every weekend to the cottage (400km round trip) and it gets stone chips, ect...so i'm not worried.