Pontiac: Looking for some feedback/ideas

Looking for some feedback/ideas on what to do with a 1984 Firebird. Whe I
originally bought this car it was partially duw to price, partially due to
rarity, and the fact it looked to be a fun project. It's an 84 with the
Iron Duke 4 cyl. with a 4 speed manual. I put in a reman 4, had the tranny
rebuilt and put in a new clutch throwout bearing etc. Went through the
suspension rebuilding or replacing pretty much everything. New brakes all
the way around. Put a decent stereo in and redid the interior. Car had no
rust any where and only a few door dings which I hammered out. At this
point the car was pretty well all new and a damn nice daily driver. The 4
had plenty of power and it handled better than any V8 Bird I'd ever driven.

So I decided to have it painted.

When I went to pick it up I was appalled. It didn't look like they had
wiped it down, much less sanded it. On the right front fender where I had
removed the Firebird logo the had painted over the damn tape that had held
the logo on. Overspray on the windshield and sunroff rubber, in general a
totally fucked job. The manger wasn't there so I went ahead and drove the
car home. It was a sweet runner when I took it in, but now ran rough as
hell and smelled hot even though no warning lights lit. On the way home I
also noticed the gas tank was on empty and it had been full when I took it
in.

When I went to drive it back the next day the engine blew, threw a rod out
the side of the block. While I was looking at that I also noticed that the
wires to the oil and temp sensors had been unplugged. Basically they took
it out joyriding, messed it all up, then did a quikie crap paint job.

I finally got paid for the settlement from the lawsuit over this, ($2000.00)
and am debating what to do. Sell it and just snag another project car, put
another 4 banger in it, or drop in a V8 and auto tranny. The only reason
I'm debating about selling it and starting over is that to get it to look
right I'll basically have to strip it to bare metal to get a decent paint
job on it thanks to thier terrible job.

Thoughts/ideas/flames?

thats terrible, i always take mine to MAICO for the $225 presidential
special, even after removing the radiator, bumpers, grill, and all
chrome myself. the bastards didn't paint the radiator housing or the
rims. and i left explicit directions for them to. i had to hit those
areas with gloss black before mounting the radiator. next time leave
them an empty tank, are you sure its the same car? will these latino
gang members stop at nothing? check your vin numbers have they been
switched or tampered with? these guys have been swapping plates and
plaqerds for years