Car finally off to body shop!

The best advice I can give is to have patience, a plan and expect it cost more than the estimate. The car will be in jail and never seems to get out when promised.

Rust never sleeps and when your body man starts to tear into it, he's going to find more. Communication with him is huge, hopefully you told him that when he hits your budget line, he notifies you and asks where to go from there. Its easy for things to spiral out of control.

The other concerns that you have I will leave to others to answer. Good luck and cheers to a fun project.