A couple things,
you said, "Yeah, I would have the whole thing re-painted but that would cost over 3k I assume. I am definitely not dumping another 3k into a car"
Sounds like you made up your mind about not painting the whole car. A Maaco paint job isn't going to look better than having a professional repaint your fenders and trim. A pro should be able to tint paint to match the older paint so long as your clear coat looks good. If not, buffing it out would probably be a good thing to do and can really bring life back into your paint. That is the big benefit of BC/CC paint is that you can cut the clear again and make it look almost new again. You can't really do that with single stage.
A paint job is 50% prep, 15% materials and 35% with cutting, buffing/polishing and a S**T ton of patience and will still cost you a bunch of money. If you don't have a good foundation (prep/body work) then you will not have a good paint job even with the most expensive BC/CC. SS can look really good if the car is prepped and sprayed correctly and cut and buffed to perfection.
I can't stress this enough but there is more to it than just getting a compressor and HVLP gun, they have to be matched to each other!! You can't spray with a 15 SCFM gun if you have a compressor with an output of only 5.5 SCFM @ 40psi. You need to drain the compressor, get a water trap, build a booth with a ventilation system and filters. Sand, wash parts with soap and water, wax and grease remover, tack cloth, 2K prime, filler primer, block sand, filler prime again, block sand, and again.
There is sooo much involved in prep and what I mentioned isn't even the half of it. Completely disassemble the vehicle and masking and body work is a major chore as well.
Right now I'm in the process of body work on my 87 T-top GT and i'm prepping for primer. It's a ton of work and i'll be painting my car in my garage. This is not my first time either.
$1500 is worth it! Maaco does a horrible job prepping. They scuff it up real quick and wipe it down and shoot it with everything still attached for the cheap paint job and it won't last long. They'd paint the car with dents and scratches because they know they don't have a reputable name in the business that represents QUALITY and lasting paint jobs.