Vehicle Painter
What the work is
Prepares surfaces of vehicles, matches and mixes colours, and applies paint.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Prepares surfaces of vehicles for painting by cleaning, sanding and masking
- Matches and mixes paint colours to vehicle specifications
- Applies paint to vehicles using spray guns, brushes or rollers, ensuring paint coverage is even and smooth
- Applies clear coat and other protective finishes to vehicles
- Inspects painted vehicles for quality and makes any necessary touch-ups or repairs
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a spray booth at the back of a collision repair shop, where cars are prepared, colour-matched and painted. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- You match a tricky metallic colour so well the owner cannot find the repair
- A car rolls out of the booth with a mirror finish and not a speck of dust
- A fussy customer runs a hand along the door and says nothing at all, which is the best thing they could say
Hard days
- Dust settles into a nearly finished panel and the whole job has to be redone
- A paint colour that will not match no matter how many times you mix it
- Hours in a protective suit and mask, with a car due out by lunchtime
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 351631, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.