Career: Automotive-Body Repairers
There is a bit of the artist in the automotive-body repairer. While automotive technicians work on the inside of cars, repairers work on the outside.
They straighten bent frames, paint over scratches, fill in holes, and pound out dents. In short, they restore wrecks to their former beauty -- or maybe even take them to a new level. Once repairers finish their work, they should be the only ones to remember what a car looked like when it first came into the shop.
Automotive-body repairers repair and restore damaged vehicles so that they look like new.
Did You Know?
- New car designs tend to use steel alloys, aluminum, and plastic, rather than the traditional steel.
Are You Ready To...?
- Use a pneumatic metal-cutting gun to remove badly damaged parts of a car
- Hammer out small dents, scratches, and pitting with a pick hammer
- Protect yourself against paint fumes and burns from torches and hot metal
- Reshape damaged panels
- Weld
- Learn new technologies
It Helps to Be...
Able to visualize how a car will look after you’re done with it. Since you’re both painter and sculptor when restoring a car, it helps to have a good sense of form and color.
Make High School Count
- Sign up for auto shop.
- Find out if your high school participates in a training program such as the Automotive Youth Education Services.
- Pay attention in chemistry, math, and physics. That knowledge will help you measure parts accurately, understand pressure controls on paint spray guns, and mix paints and chemicals.
- Make the most of English classes and build up your reading skills. You’ll need to understand service manuals and written instructions.
Did You Know?
- In addition to their repair work, many automotive-body repairers assess damages and estimate repair costs. This is especially important in a field that deals so closely with the insurance industry.
Outlook
Government economists expect jobs for automotive-body and related repairers to grow as fast as the average for all careers through 2016. Because more cars are on the road, more cars will get into fender-benders and require repairs.
There should be plenty of jobs for those with training. A large number of these workers will be retiring soon. They’ll need to be replaced.
Compensation
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the average yearly salary in 2008 for automotive-body repairers was $39,950. Repairers tend to get paid for each job they complete, not by the hour. This system is called incentive, or flat-rate, pay.
