Re: nitro frinish
The body seems "a bit" high, but again not out of line for nitro. The neck is just about what I expeced. Here's the way I look at it. Dawn charged us $400 for the body and $200 for the neck on Seymour's tele, and that was a year ago. I'm sure material cost has gone up a touch, and it's harder and harder to spray nitro commercially.
At most, I think the total price may be $75-100 more that what I would consider decent. However, if RS had come back and said $375 for the body and $175 for the neck it would have been a very decent deal. So, is the project worth the extra $100 to you? It would be to me, to recreate the guitar you had, or to just create the best guitar you can for the $$.
To me, I'd pull the trigger and be done with it, and have it just the way I want it. Life is too short.