I do everything myself. Honestly, I even do the alignment myself these days. I can't stand for someone else to work on my truck.
So you have a real job - big deal. Keep doing the work yourself and with your real job you can buy cooler stuff to put on...yourself.
If I don't have the tool to do the job, I don't take it to a shop. I buy the tool.
When I did the gear set-up on my rear axle, I checked out how much professional labor would cost (about $250 - 300) and then bought the necessary tools to do it myself and still came out ahead. Plus, one of the tool was a 12 ton hydr. press that has come in pretty darn handy for other jobs.
The only thing I have had done is the exhaust. I put on the ram horns and drove it to the exhaust shop. I briefly considered buying a tubing bender and using my mig to weld it up, but I guess we all have our limits and the bender was just too much $$
-- Mike