The painted ones sell for big bucks on Ebay.. I'm not sure about the $1,000, but it would probably cost that much if you had the sewing machine painters do it. When I thought about it, the deal breaker was taking off all the chrome/metal parts. Somehow, I didn't think I'd ever get it back together. I called the sewing machine shop and he said $200. to take it apart and $200 to put it back together (more if he wasn't the one to take it apart). That cooled my jets.
If you'll search, you'll find several sewing machine painters online.
bkay
edit: If you are good at searching QB, there are some threads about people who painted their's themselves.