That's kind of the route I went. I found a guy on Craigslist. 16 years experience, and works at a shop during the day and for himself at night. He did all the body work in his garage, and uses his grandfather's shop at night to do the painting. Best of all, I had his wife's number, and when I felt the job was taking too long, I sent her a picture of 13 $100 bills and told her they were at risk of losing the balance owed.
Took about five weeks, but the job got done and done well. I got a crunched quarter and very dented rood fixed, several dents and dings beat out, new steel welded in on the undersides, primering with POR-15 and a total color change to black for $2,300.