Starting Monday, I'm a body man.

[MustangOwner]

Well i've been going back and forth between if i want to be a body man or not. So before i go to college for it this fall, i got a job starting this monday at the body shop that painted my saleen ground effects. Weird i know? ha. Plus now i'll have 2 jobs so therefore more money towards the stang! I really want to get into restoring old cars. the body shop i will be working at does mostly old cars but also does insurance work just so hes got money coming in. And also if i get that '86 Mustang.... he said if i stay and work he'll let me bring it in and work on it. PLUS i'll have the next 2 years at college also to work on it! So this could work out good ha. I mean isn't this a perfect project car then? ha

Are any of you guys on here body man or mechanics or anything. I think it would kinda be nice so that you'd have the knowledge to buy cheap cars and restore them to your standards. Thats mainly why i'm do it ha.

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[steadfastcrew]

cool.. you gonna be in the las vegas area anytime soon by chance?? haha.. i need a ton of bodywork on my stang..

 

[Modular2v]

honestly... i have always been a body guy, tits and ass more specifically haha

 

[bigcat]

get out while you still can. i have been in the biz for about 10 years, and it gets worse every year. i finally decided to find another career. i am so much happier now that i actually have money coming in. its hard to make money these days in a bodyshop. most are so slow they barely stay open. the really good shops keep their employees because everyone knows how tough it is out there.

i would say most techs you talk to will say it does not pay off to get into the automotive business.

i am an ASE master body/paint tech and have quality standards through the roof. many shops wanted me to come work for them, but its not a situation that would pay off for me. you just need to get out before its too late.

 

[Darkwriter77]

Damn ... Modular2v beat me to it. (Except I go for a pretty face first, myself.)

What's the major bad about the auto industry? I can see the total suck of having to work on OTHER people's cars all day long (I'd much rather work on my own, or my friends'), and the obvious long-term health risks of being exposed to chemicals and such, but otherwise ... what sucks the most? I mean, the pay sure is heck beats anything I've ever made doing anything before in my lifetime...

 

[MustangOwner]

Well right now my family owns a Truck Acs. company, we sell toppers, trailers, gas, food, we also do servicing and oil changes, and sell cars and a ton of otehr things, sell sheds and rent trailers and all that crap. Business is pretty good actually, not to toot my own horn or anything. but i always wanted to do body work and i have the land and i'd just start my own business. And yes i know its another whole mess ha!

 

[ryan218]

if your a skilled painter you can make good money...get your name out there...people will come....im going to go to school for auto body and paint later on down the road(way down) to learn more...

 

[MustangOwner]

Yeah well i'm eventaully gonna open a shop so i'm bound to make some good money then, being as i'd be the owner! Damn Ryan your interior does look pretty sharp! thats a good picture. Now i see what you mean when you said you like the blue seats with the black dash and stuff. Before i was like what? that looks like ****, but now that i see it with the car picture it looks very nice. matches the paint.

 

[bigcat]

the only way to make good money is to do it on the side and not have a middle man taking a cut from you.

 

[N8Miller]

where you located.... paint my car

good luck with that.

 

[Superhereaux]

Yeah well i'm eventaully gonna open a shop so i'm bound to make some good money then, being as i'd be the owner!

everyone says that. not to be a dick but chances are you won't and if you do manage to somehow (again you won't) there's a REALLY good chance your business will fail and you'll end up in debt

What's the major bad about the auto industry? I can see the total suck of having to work on OTHER people's cars all day long (I'd much rather work on my own, or my friends'), and the obvious long-term health risks of being exposed to chemicals and such, but otherwise ... what sucks the most? I mean, the pay sure is heck beats anything I've ever made doing anything before in my lifetime...

from a tech's (can't speak for you paintsniffers) standpoint:

working on other people's car doesn't bother me. i like taking care of the problem the car came in for and seeing the customer leave happy, one of the reasons i got into the business. i later learned this business is based solely on making money rather than pleasing the customer

chemicals aren't a big deal, i use gloves and only get really dirty when i'm doing a heavy-line job or suspension (which i hate). i'm more of a diag. guy anyway

as far as pay, i'm in a weird (F'ed up) situation and have only been doing this for less than 2yrs so while i'm not barely scrapping by i'm not really in a position to go out every weekend or buy mods for my car every month. the service manager (former service writer) and general manager (former salesman) at my dealership are very greedy and have no clue what it's like for us techs, they just care about stuffing their pockets at the expense of ours.


can't speak for everyone though, just my personal experience. i'm at a point right now where i have to decide whether i should keep going in this business (i'm trying to get into part$) or whether i should go back to school. i'm 23 so i figure if i'm going to change something i better do it now

 

[MAC'n89Blckstng]

get out while you still can. i have been in the biz for about 10 years, and it gets worse every year. i finally decided to find another career. i am so much happier now that i actually have money coming in. its hard to make money these days in a bodyshop. most are so slow they barely stay open. the really good shops keep their employees because everyone knows how tough it is out there.

i would say most techs you talk to will say it does not pay off to get into the automotive business.

i am an ASE master body/paint tech and have quality standards through the roof. many shops wanted me to come work for them, but its not a situation that would pay off for me. you just need to get out before its too late.

Its all in the area where you live, the shop that I am currently at and most likely will be at for a long while is booming, constantly growing. If you find a good shop with a repectable amount of clientelle youll be set. I've been at this shop for 5 weeks now and its getting better an better everyday. If you have the want to learn and know everything, and your boss is willing to teach you right, you'll go far. What school are you goin to? To be honest, after 3 years of goin to school for collision, I've come to see that the whole thing is a huge joke, an in my case, I didn't learn crap. The people who teach body work are the guys that the business rejected. Unless your just looking for a degree, collision college is a joke. Before I went to school, my boss told me that body shop college is a joke, now I know what he's talking about. I learned everything I know by working in a high quality shop with a bunch of guys that wanted to see me progress. Good luck man, bodywork is awesome and my life revolves around it. Once you get confident in your work and have pride in your work, you really start to appreciate what you do.

 

[MustangOwner]

Yeah, the guy that i'm going to work for is a good guy, hes got a smaller shop but does alot of old cars and insurance work. He's the guy that painted my saleen ground effects and he also paints our used pick up toppers for my Fathers Truck Asc. business. He said he's just gonna start me out block sanding, and then go from there. I've heard the same things about collision repair college also. Depending if he can teach me good enough, i might not go to college.

 

[juiced_94gt]

Im a painter a shop here in cali, i make most of the money, meaning im the only painter, and we have 6 bodymen, they are always complaining of how it was more money back in the day, but now it sucks, it's good for me because i get all there work, it's comission so they have competition within themselves for the jobs that pay decent money, sometines it sucks.

 

[juiced_94gt]

by the way, when you work on cars all day everyday, it kinda takes the passion out of working on your own car, i used to be more motivated working on my cars when i wasnt working on everybody elses cars everyday.