Automotive Body Repairer

Automotive Body Repairers repair damage on cars and trucks following vehicle or other types of accidents. To be an Automotive Body Repairer, you must be specially trained on special tools, equipment, and machinery.

As an Automotive Body Repairer, when you first meet with your customer, you inspect their vehicle, consider costs, evaluate damage, and write up an estimate. When assessing damage, you figure out if/how your job will overlap with that of a Mechanic, such as when damage occurs to the engine. One job might need to happen before the other, so you factor that into your scheduling.

If the customer agrees to your price, you begin the process of repairing the damage. Commonly damaged parts are doors, hoods, trunks, fenders, or bumpers. You may work on one vehicle start to finish, or specialize in one area of a production line, such as scrapes, dents, or paint repair.

To make the repairs, you use special hammers, hydraulic jacks, or pry bars. If parts are broken, such as headlights, you replace them. You remove dents, fill in scrapes, sand, buff, prepare a base coat, and apply fresh paint. Along the way, you strive to match parts, design, texture and color. Creating a flawless match proves your level of skill. There is no greater compliment then a customer who returns and remarks, “It looks like nothing ever happened.”

This is a great job if you love working with your hands, have manual dexterity, and take pride in producing quality results.