Auto body repair & detailing: auto body repair questions, freshman college student, plastic adhesives

Question
Mike,
I am a Freshman college student and i was assigned a project to study a proffesion that i wanted to go into. I was wondering if you could answer some of my questions?
1. What is the nature of the work involved with auto body repair?
2. What kind of training and job qualifications are required?
3. What are some job and employment opportunities?
4. What are some of the working conditions?
5. What do auto body repairers do?
6. How much can an auto body repairers earn?
Thanks alot for your time.
Blake Wood

Answer
1. A lot of hard work. It is quite rewarding at times but the work is not easy 2. You will need a good vo-ed course first to learn the basics. Then the best training is experience. I washed cars for a year in a body shop before I was able to actually work on one by myself. 3. The opportunities are not what they use to be. It seems that allot of people in the job market think they can do this. Once the economy gets better, they will go back to their cushy job if they can. 4. A lot of chemicals in the paint shop and some in the body side now too. Panel and plastic adhesives. 5. A good body-paint man can make a hundred grand or more when he is young. As you get older, you don't move so fast, your knees and joints will ache from crawling around on cement floor.
If you are in college, take up something that will not kill you, you can always fall back on this if you have to.