Automotive Painting and Body Technician Courses

Automotive Painting and Body Technician courses provide students with hands-on-training and experience for work as an Auto Body Technician and Automotive Refinishing Prep Technician, two fields that are in constant demand. Automotive Painting and Body Technician courses focus on developing the skills required to ensure successful entry into an automotive painting and bodywork profession.The automotive Industry remains one of the most important in North America, despite the restructuring that has captured so much attention. There continues to be mass competition, significant advances in technology, including many “green initiatives”, and ongoing demand to repair and service the some 500 million cars that are already on the road.Automotive Painting and Body Technician courses will often cover the following topics:
Introduction to the Automotive Industry and shop safety
Automotive detailing
Automotive refinishing prep tools and shop procedures
Materials
Surface preparation
Small dent repair
Priming
Plastic parts refinishing
Masking procedures
Introduction to refinishing procedures
Tools and equipment
Welding technology
Sheet metal repair
Vehicle construction technology
Plastic repair technologyThe pay structure for a Refinishing Prep and Auto Body Technician leaves plenty of room for earning growth. On average, Collision Repair Technicians make between $40,000 and $56,000 per year. Pursuing a career in auto body repair painting means you can pursue entry-level positions with a long list of potential employers, including:

New car dealers
Retail collision repair facilities
Custom specialty shops
Heavy duty truck repair facilities
Becoming an entrepreneur and owning your own body shopPositions for graduates of auto body repair painting courses include:
Automotive Detailer
Apprentice Refinishing Prep Technician
Apprentice Motor Vehicle Body Repairer
Automotive Metal Fabricator/Welder
Plastic Repair Technician
Dent Doctor
Aftermarket Installer
Automotive Refinishing Technician
Automotive Painter
And MoreTypical duties for Refinishing Prep or Auto Body Repair Technicians include:

Remove wax, grease and dust from the vehicle
Remove rough spots on vehicle panels and sand surfaces by hand or with air sanders
Minor damage repairs
Restoration of anti-corrosion treatments and substrate preparation
Undercoat product mixing and application ensuring chemical compatibility, adhesion and durability
Application of anti-corrosion compounds
Prep vehicle for paint; masking and priming
Apply primer to repair areas
Paint parts inners
Sand the vehicle several times during the painting process
Possible collision or restorative work, or they may design and create custom paint jobs
Set the booth to dry the paint
Remove masking papers and touch up paintwork
Remove parts, damaged fenders, doors, panels, and grills
Repair structure of vehicles
Remove dents, buckles, and other defects
Repair and replace doors, front-end body, and underbody components
And more

Low Cost Kitchen Improvements

Kitchen is a very important in every house. Every day we need to cook three meals in the kitchen, and a convenient kitchen will make our home life comfortable. Besides regular clean work, you can also make low-cost kitchen improvements to keep your kitchen stylish and chic. Now there are some useful ways, and they will certainly benefit you a lot.Cleanness is very important for the kitchen, so you should choose some easy to clean kitchen wares. Stainless steel products are best options, for they will never fade or rusty. Moreover, this kind of products is durable. If you can take proper care of these items, they may last for a life time. Many kitchens have stainless steel kitchen sinks or faucets. If you do not have any stainless steel items, it is time to replenish some for your kitchen. As they are sold at low prices, they can save you much money while updating the whole style of house.Make a little change of your kitchen cabinet or drawers. You can paint new colors of drawers or cabinet doors; or you can add distinctive handles to cupboards or cabinets. These little accessories are not expensive either. If you want to make a bigger change, you can change for new mosaic tiles. Mosaic tiles made from different materials will bring different styles to your kitchen. And you can even change the color of your kitchen wall. May be you cannot change the structure, but the new wall color will make your kitchen fresh.You can also visit an outlet store to find some good home-goods or new kitchen wares. A colorful bowl, pretty napkin and exquisite saucers can make your kitchen distinctive from others. Moreover, you can even add health plant to the kitchen. And then whenever you cook meals, you can smell the fresh aroma of plants. Good ideas always make life better. If you do not want to live a boring life, you can start to improve your kitchen now. Time, money and energy are excuses. Get rid of those excuses, you deserve to live a better life.

The BMW M1 – A BMW Motorsport Legend Super Car

Back in the early 1970′s BMW decided that it was high time that it took on the established supercar elite of Porsche and Ferrari and that the best way to achieve this aim was to design and build a car that could compete in the popular Group 5 race series.Homologation rules stated that BMW would also have to build 400 of these cars for road use and so the BMW M1 was born. Sadly however, the BMW M1 race car had a troubled gestation period and its story is now regarded by many as an important lesson on how not to build a supercar.Initially the BMW motorsport department turned to Lamborghini to use their experience to help design and build their new racer. The result was a sleek, low slung, mid engine supercar with body work designed by Ital Design and a 3.5 litre engine that could be turbocharged to produce 850 bhp in Group 5 racing spec.Unfortunately Lamborghini was in dire financial circumstances at the time, which meant that the project suffered frequent delays and in the end the whole project had to be moved to the BMW motorsport department in Baur, Germany. However, by the time the M1 was ready to be launched in 1978, two years after its initial conception, Group 5 racing rules had changed meaning that the M1 was no longer practical.In an effort to save the project from total disaster the head of BMW motorsport devised a one make race series called the Procar BMW M1 Championship. The series was very successful as it ran as a support race for the Formula 1 world championship, and pitted many past and present F1 stars, including Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Nikki Lauda, against each other in identical machinery.Whilst the race series was a success the road car BMW M1 never really took off, even though in standard trim it produced 277 bhp, could reach sixty in 5.6 seconds and top out at 162 mph. Eventually just 456 models were built making it one of BMW’s rarest models and one that is highly sought after by enthusiastic collectors.As a road car the BMW M1 was superb, featuring genuine supercar performance wrapped up with BMW’s legendary build quality, and considerably lower running costs than other supercars of the era. Externally the M1 was striking with its twin kidney shaped front grill, pop up BMW headlight bulbs and the heavy black slats over the rear windscreen.Whilst commercially the BMW M1 was never really a success its engine was subsequently used in the first BMW M5, and its design inspired BMW’s recent M1 Homage concept car.