I have been in this business my whole life, currently selling these products for the last 21 years. Restoration is very tedious to do correctly. So yes expect to pay a lot of hours for labor. I have painted a few race cars in the last 20 years and i can tell you this. A typical race car, glass/carbon nose, doors, trunklid, steel roof and quarters. I takes me about 3-400 hours to strip the steel, block out the fiberglass. Then block and polyester prime usually about 5-9 times to get the car straight. Then add in that yes the materials are very expensive.
Remember that like most things....you will get what you pay for. Expensive primer, paint, clear will give you way better results than cheaper products.

IF you want to know prices for products, you can ask me. Where i work we sell almost all the major paint lines and auto body products.