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Mechanic Or Spray Painter Apprenticeship

tanto

By tanto,
in General Automotive Discussion

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Silvia GTR Mentor

Silvia GTR

Posted
Posted

I'm neither but I can do both.

My mates a mech and hes worked for a few different places but at the end of the day its a dirty job with f all pay and he hates working on a cars outside of work hours...

Painting is easy once you get the hang of it and I'm not sure how good the pay is if your just the sprayer. I have heard rumors of people getting health issues with working with paints for many years.

Imo it would be easier/cheaper to set up your own spray shop compared to a mech workshop imo...

mad082 Grand Master

mad082

Posted
Posted

I'm neither but I can do both.

My mates a mech and hes worked for a few different places but at the end of the day its a dirty job with f all pay and he hates working on a cars outside of work hours...

Painting is easy once you get the hang of it and I'm not sure how good the pay is if your just the sprayer. I have heard rumors of people getting health issues with working with paints for many years.

Imo it would be easier/cheaper to set up your own spray shop compared to a mech workshop imo...

painting is a shit job. not just the painting but the prep work. expect to spend a lot of time sanding.

as for cost of setting up a workshop compared to spray shop, i don't know about that. good spray guns cost a fair bit (few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, and you will need more than one) plus you will need sanders, polishers, a good compressor, spray booth, welder and basic tools (spanners, etc).

a workshop just needs a hoist (they are pretty cheap), basic air compressor, tools.

i have mates in both professions and they both hate their jobs.

moral of the story, if you like working on cars as a hobby, don't do it as a profession. you will end up hating working on cars.

Alkatraz Rising Star

Alkatraz

Posted
Posted

Do a heavy diesel fitter apprenticeship, HV sparky apprenticeship or boilermaker apprenticeship, then go and earn $150,000 per year in the mines. I have worked with all of these guys over the years and they all agree that for the money, they are not hard jobs.

Auto sparky working on heavy equipment is another good one.

Chris Rogers Grand Master

Chris Rogers

Posted
Posted

moral of the story, if you like working on cars as a hobby, don't do it as a profession. you will end up hating working on cars.

pretty much sums it up. will happily work on them during hours - after hours - forget it . kid time unless I'm, working on one of my toys.

Al Despo Proficient

Al Despo

Posted
Posted

I was at a crossroads whether to do an apprenticeship and follow in my dad's footsteps but he talked me out of it and now I study a bachelor of mechanical engineering at uni and still keep the passion to work on cars so win win

gold-3lt Enthusiast

gold-3lt

Posted
Posted

Yeah i probably would'nt do either if i were you. I'm currently studying diesel fitting and i'm hoping to find an apprenticeship by january sometime if i can. however for my work experience i could only get into a normal everyday mechanical workshop and i can tell already that i wouldnt like it long term. For how dirty you get and how much swearing you do changing CV shafts, lower control arm bushes, V6 engine mounts and all that shit you'd want to get paid a bit better for it in return. every day i get burnt doing stupid toyota oil filters which are right under the exhaust manifold. So i'd say look into deisel fitting or auto electrical areas. even hydraulics would be good.

33GTRV Mentor

33GTRV

Posted
Posted

if you can live on a poor salary and evjoy getting flogged every day of the week, try a mechinics apprenticeship. Been there, done that, not something i enjoyed. I drive cranes and am a heights and rigging specialist nowadays, much better pay and much better work, although it can be quiet physical at times.

t_revz Grand Master

t_revz

Posted
Posted

auto elec is ok if you live in the city or wanna do FIFO but if you dont there arent that many opportunities. diesel fitting is ok as there is a fair bit of variety in the work and money is usually good. i spent 7 weeks stripping, sanding and prepping my car to do a full respray and i only enjoyed the first day and last day :down:

thoroughly agree about working on cars for a living will make you hate doing it on the weekends

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