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Apprentice panel beater

VL_5SPEED

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Hey guys im a chef by trade but hate it and panel beating spray painting interests me. I am 23 years old does anyone know what 1st years get per hour on the minimum award wage??
 

Drawnnite

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most trades, 1st years get jack all. actually, most apprentices get stuff all (however not all, i should know =P)
your probably looking around the $10 an hour range.

honestly it may not seem much, but slug it out for 4 years and then youll see the light at the end of the tunnel
 

hi_ryder

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(tradesman painter here) if you going to get into spray painting or beating dont do it for money reasons, cause i can tell you first hand it isnt there. it isnt like it was 10 or 15 years ago. if your contracting youll be doing insurance work for companies like aami and all the other sun corp names, and getting commodore money for jobs that they want bentley quality out of.

as a painter and beater industry standards are now pushing for the clock on and off system when working on cars. when i start a job i get the job number and clock on to it. i then have to finish the job under or on the target hours listed on the job sheet. if your a contractor your on your coin to get it finished quick, but if your on wage your expected to finish under the allotted hours or on time. if you go over all the time you might not be considered a valued employee if you get my drift. same stuff applies to an apprentice, its a tough trade and if you dont pick up stuff quickly they might not keep you around.

that being said ive always found mature aged apprentices seem to be more switched on then the average 16 17 year old kid. if your switching careers, you want to be there, and your switched on youll do well. but like anything you have to have a passion for what your doing or it will go no where. i still enjoy what i do after 8 years in the trade, if i didnt id have already been gone, cause theres so many headaches to deal with...

as for the money my first year i didnt make more than $250 a week. not sure what NSW wages are but what ever it is trust me, prepare to work almost for free for the first 3 years. once you get a hang of it you can start doing back yard jobs for cash to boost your pocket money, and ease the strain...
 

Angeldust

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when i was 18 i dropped out of uni and got a job as a labourer in a panel shop.

After just over a year i went back to uni. I am glad i did.
 

Troy711

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as a painter and beater industry standards are now pushing for the clock on and off system when working on cars. when i start a job i get the job number and clock on to it. i then have to finish the job under or on the target hours listed on the job sheet. if your a contractor your on your coin to get it finished quick, but if your on wage your expected to finish under the allotted hours or on time

Isn't this promoting shortcuts within the industry? Example, if you are allotted 30 minutes to remove and refit a bumper which takes double the time cos it's mangled to the **** won't you try and save that time elsewhere resulting in a sub par finish? (I'm not saying you personally, just in general.)
 

hi_ryder

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Isn't this promoting shortcuts within the industry? Example, if you are allotted 30 minutes to remove and refit a bumper which takes double the time cos it's mangled to the **** won't you try and save that time elsewhere resulting in a sub par finish? (I'm not saying you personally, just in general.)

i dont really know where to data on this goes. ive been told the insurance companies are the ones who started the logging job hours thing, but i do know the company own s my shop and the other 4 use the data to keep track of what was quoted and actual hours spent on the job. that way they can try and prevent under quoting and losing out. if something takes longer because of hidden damage, they take pics and add that to the quote as an extra. so you dont have to cut another corner and mangle the job. but other jobs dont get those extras no matter what and you have to just leave it and hope the customer dosent pic it, then they can get in a shitfight with the insurer, because the insurance cuts it off at a certain price..

but on the other hand its kinda stupid because for the wage workers they get paid bonus money per hour of time saved on a job. as a company there trying to cut down on bad customer feedback but at the same time the employees are being rewarded at the end of the week with extra money for basically cutting corners.

im a contractor so i get like 35 or 40% of the total paint cost quoted regardless of the time spent on the job. i dont get paid by the hour

most of the stuff i see is like when a panel beater dosent remove a part they are aloud in the quote, thus saving time. like leaving the door handle on and just painting over it. if im painting a quarter panel the beater might just hang the bar down on the side instead of removing it completely. leaving a headlight in and just masking it up stuff like that. its alot harder as a spray painter to save time because if a panel is down for paint i have to paint it.

some panel beaters at my work get 20+ hours a week in bonus.
 

VL_5SPEED

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Thanks dude i know about **** wages im a chef. Panel beating interests me, wouldnt mind getting into the trade
 
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