auto body technician

painter

body shop estimator

automotive technician

automotive detailer

Maaco Collision Repair & Auto Painting

a typical day in the body shop is strictly up to my vast knowledge and love for fixing damaged vehicles. working on vehicles has taught me to never underestimate the time given to complete the job at hand. Ive learned so much over the past ten years, learning how almost every make and model vehicle is disassembled and reassembled when needing to repair the damaged areas. The hardest part of my job I would have to say would be making sure that all vehicles that need frame straightening return back to before accident condition, and knowing how to use a frame machine to make the job at hand come back out the proper way. What makes the whole job enjoyable for me would be getting the satisfaction of seeing the joyous reactions from the customers as they are once again able to take their vehicles home with them after such tragic accidents. It is also the satisfaction of knowing that those jobs were done using all the proper procedures to make those vehicles look like show room quality.   As for other co workers. in the body shop settings. you as a worker are usually left to yourself to complete your job tasks on your own, but if you happen to have difficulties with a task you are able to consort with the other workers to come up with a good game plan to help you past a bump in the job. You learn to not only rely on yourself, because that co worker may need some help with one of his jobs too.   working as a team makes the whole shop experience worth going through on a daily basis.

Outside of my manager, whom I knew for a few years having worked together in the past, I did not really enjoy my coworkers. The entire operation is motivated by money, outside of the regular desire to make a living. Pay could be decent, feast, or famine lifestyle. You are in this nearly condemned building for 9 hours a day, on commission pay. Only five days are allotted per 365 days for vacation, no rollover. And expected to work at least one Saturday a month, alone. Management decisions are all based on numbers and the owner's bottom line, this makes sense but is very impersonal. The shop overall could be making a profit, but the owner's margins take precedence.  Management oftentimes does not know how to speak to, or respect employees. Often cursing and berating employees with threatening language. The other mentality is, "Why fix it, it still works". Instead of optimizing work output by updating or replacing things around the shop, efficiency is abandoned as you are expected to "walk around" the issue. Outdated tech that should have been addressed a decade ago is still in use. Management is cutthroat and proud of that, which does not bode confidence as an employee. Poor leadership skills lead to deep-seated resentment and disrespect. The environment is hostile, to say the least. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
May be specific to location. My location (Little Canada) hired me with minimal experience and proceeded to task me with harder and harder tasks far beyond my expertise. To the point (due to being commission pay, combined with the jobs this specific shop was ready to handle, and the experienced body techs unwillingness to train, period.) I was forced out of my position. Good place to start if you want an understanding of autobody. If you want a career or to be taken seriously, forget it. Maaco is a joke and management at this establishment has no idea.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management not understanding how to manage and auto industry shoo, paired with potential coworkers who have no desire to help other Co workers. Only want to retain job security. Rude.all around. Short cut company.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
No thank you never again, horrible co workers. Aweful management. Disgusting and cheap af clientele. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Hard, grueling, and very much will put you to the test. They will drain every ounce of energy and work out of you, and also will not give toy sny credit nor thanks for your hard work.

I loved working here. My coworkers were like family to me. The pay wasn't great, but the environment and family-like atmosphere made up for the lack of wages and benefits. The hardest part of the job was the struggle to keep a steady flow of business coming in. With all the local competition, and our lack of proper advertising and signage, it was a struggle to keep business flowing in. We had the skills and talent, but the lack of corporate support for our shop made it a constant worry for my future here. Hearing management express worry on the daily about making payroll and paying for operating costs was stressful and made me sad because this was by far my favorite employer of all time. Maybe management could use some improvement, but I'm only speculating as I don't have experience owning this type of business, only others. And the owner is a great guy, so I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, and no one is perfect. I have disabilities, so it's not easy for me to find an employer that I'm able to comfortably work for, but Maaco in Denton was great. I hope someday I can go back to this employer, once the locals figure out that they should be taking their vehicles here for repair instead.

Well it started out good, when the new owners opened up. I turned down other jobs to help get this place up and going. I told the new owners everything the building needed. Lights, compressor, door work, 2 doors, and the paint booth needs work. Now almost a year into this, everything still needs done, less lights now than before. Then, they started making the manager flag ahead, to make "numbers". So they flagged out everything they could to impress somebody, I guess. Now 6 months later they want everyone to knock out all the work. I don't have a problem doing the work, my problem is my paychecks suffer because of their lack of leadership, ownership, and they say well you been paid.. so let's talk about pay, they changed our home pay system, so any job that has any other labor than body work on it I don't get paid that money. Also from all the flagging ahead these 2 did, I haven't been paid on a lot of supplements. Now they wanna fix it, and "they know how to fix it". So to me sounds like they changed everything to make it better for themselves. Which they did.

prepare for the day, open up shop, run the shop production line of the cars that are already in the shop from station to station, communicate with the office manager about what processes a car is in and when it will be ready, communicate with the employees of what is expected of them for the day and share the schedule of each car with them, end of the day closing reports, close up shop. I learned how to paint a car, how to keep production running smooth, and how to communicate production in a different environment than auto repair. The hardest part of the job was doing the daily, weekly, monthly closing reports because the way Maaco inc. had us do it was unusual to me. Most enjoyable part of the job was returning the car to the customers and seeing the look of joy on their faces and having a relationship with them once they would bring back their other cars or recommend us to family or friends.

I fell into this job and position after my father, the owner, was involved in a violent car accident that has left him a paraplegic. I left my job as an account executive for a TV station (where I was miserable anyway) and assumed control of the body shop. Although I had helped write some estimates for 6 months when it first opened 10 years earlier, I had forgotten almost everything.

This afforded me the opportunity to learn several new things everyday, and made me confront challenges that I never dreamed I'd encounter so early in my life. I learned how to earn to the respect of several people who were much older and much more experienced than I was. Even with a few personnel issues that forced me to replace more than half of my crew and a paint booth that shut down every couple of weeks, we experienced our best year of business since opening.

The business owner can range from kind to absolutely insane in a moment. Will slam, scream, curse at employees and customers alike. He will call you every swear word possible, take your DA sander out of your hand, tell you how to do body work despite having years of experience.

He also refuses to give letter of separation as well and will not tell you you are fired. He will say he does not need you and never call leaving you wondering if you still have a job. 

The job can be very dirty and certainly not OSHA compliant. People will arc weld without shield to protect everyone's vision. The place is also poorly ventilated and most people work without masks or respirators. They will openly spray etching Primer next to you w/o PPE.

The only benefits working here is he hires on a whim and never drug tests (for those who cannot work clean), nor does he do criminal background checks. So if no one will hire you, maybe try here. If you have any self respect or options, don't.

Maaco has been very good to me over the years.
It is always a great satisfaction of seeing a older vehicle rejuvenated at a quality price, or that customer who was so upset over their damaged vehicle that they got it repaired at a more than fair reasonable price. The Days are long 7 am to 6 pm or longer on weekdays. 9 am to Noon On Saturdays - Weekends are short.
Co workers are generally a tight group always willing to help each other out. There really is not a hard part for this job, if your willing to multitask on many levels. and the payoff is always that Sincere Thank You! When the Customer is very satisfied with the services they paid for.

Icame in set up the paint booth for the first car to be painted. then i would wipe the second and third car down that i had prepared the day before. While the painter painted those cars,usually taking him until noon, I would prepare the rest of the cars to be painted that day and with the remaining time of the day i would ready  the cars to be painted the next day.It was a music filled enviroment that made working easy.We were encouraged to take a full hour lunch which many places dont.   It is hard work and difficult to do as you get older, I spent 30 years in the business, 22 of them painting for Maaco. The best part of working at Maaco was the satisfaction of a happy customer. The hardest part of the job was losing my vision with age so to speak, and having to do prepwork instead of painting.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Auto body technician 65 salaries reported	$26.10 per hour
Painter 38 salaries reported	$22.40 per hour
Body shop estimator 13 salaries reported	$61,000 per year
Automotive technician 20 salaries reported	$21.31 per hour
Automotive detailer 17 salaries reported	$15.79 per hour

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