>Has anyone had a repaint job done just from the rain gutters down?  and
if so what was your experience like?  I >figure I could save a bunch of
money by having it done this way.

I had this done a couple of years ago --- no problem at all. The paint
above the rain gutters was in excellent shape and IMHO it would have been
a big PITA for minimal gain to paint this area.

>Speaking of which, anybody have a ballpark price for a GOOD paint job?

Automotive paint jobs are a "you get what you pay for" kind of thing.
You mention:
>There is a tiny bit of seem rust along the vertical seem next to one of
the doors that needs to be taken care of as >well (It's just enough to
blister the paint, but not enough to see actual rust).

Good example --- your body shop can handle this in two ways. 1) by hitting
the seam with a wire brush in an angle grinder for two seconds, spraying
on some primer --- and then on to finish coat. 2) cutting out the seam
sealer, sandblasting down to bare metal, applying a rust-converting primer
(POR-15 like stuff), applying and sanding high-build primer on top of
this, applying finish coat(s), and finally applying fresh seam sealer.

For every dint, scrape, rust spot there is an equivalent difference of
approaches in each repair. Quick and dirty versus meticulous "do it
right". When you get the van out of the shop with its new paint job there
is very little difference between the two schools --- but down the road
when that seam rust comes back (in six months) or the rust spots
re-appear, you'll know which paint job you paid for. Body work is all by
the hour --- the guy who takes the most hours is going to do the better
job. When you're getting quotes --- let them explain exactly how they're
gong to fix stuff -- not just give you a total price, you'll probably
learn something and you'll be letting the guy know that you really do
care.

You can probably guess how I (now) know this.........

Cheers,
Doug