Maintenance Management

Vehicle Body Repair and Refinishing

A body repair is judged entirely on appearance by someone standing two metres away, which makes preparation the whole job and paint the part that reveals whether preparation was done. This course works in that order. Delegates work through damage assessment and the decision between repair and replacement, including structural damage that must not be repaired. Panel beating and metal finishing follow, covering shrinking, filling and the filler thickness that will eventually crack. Surface preparation is covered in detail: sanding grades, feather edging, degreasing and the contamination that causes every common paint defect. Primers, sealers and their purpose are addressed. Colour matching is covered, including variant decks, spray out cards and blending into adjacent panels. Spray technique follows: gun setup, pressure, distance, overlap and the film build that decides gloss. Booth conditions and curing are addressed. Paint defects are diagnosed by appearance and traced to cause. Polishing and finishing are covered. The course closes on health protection from isocyanates and on estimating a job honestly.