Dave W you got a deal. Sounds like a lot of work and it looks great.
Pat - I wasn't insulting anybody's abilities, just my own. With hard work and prep paint jobs look better, I imagine it is the same for powder coating. If it took 20 hours of prep, in Ca your going to get charged by the hour for the prep, then there is material costs and some profit to pay the rent. Things are very expensive out here at shops with the reputation to get the job done right the first time.
I also agree that I'd rather do as much of the prep as possible to keep the prices down. There are some people out here with lots of bucks and no desire, or time to do it themselves and they would gladly pay for somweone else to do it right.
Now back to Don's original questions, about price ranges, what fillers to use and Dan doing the prep, I'm sure that would lower costs significantly.
Don I found this web page with info on fillers for powder coating, hope it helps. Steve
http://www.finishing.com/1600-1799/1605.shtml