Enrobing machine operators coat, or enrobe, confectionery, bakery, and other food products with melted chocolate, cheese, oils, sugar, or other substances. Although the majority of painting and coating machine operators are employed in manufacturing, the largest, best known group of them work in automotive body repair and paint shops refinishing old and damaged cars, trucks, and buses. Automotive painters are among the most highly skilled manual spray operators because, when painting only the repaired portions of a vehicle, they often have to mix paint to match the original color, which can be very difficult, particularly if the color has faded. To prepare a vehicle for painting, automotive painters or their helpers use power sanders and sandpaper to remove the original paint or rust, and then fill small dents and scratches with body filler. They also remove or mask parts they do not want painted, such as chrome trim, headlights, windows, and mirrors.
Automotive painters use a spray gun to apply several coats of paint.
They apply lacquer or enamel primers to vehicles with metal bodies and flexible primers to newer vehicles with plastic body parts. Aiming the spray gun by hand, they apply successive coats of paint until the finish of the repaired sections of the vehicle matches that of the original undamaged portions. To speed drying between coats, they may place the freshly painted vehicle under heat lamps or in a special infrared oven. After each coat of primer dries, they sand the surface to remove any irregularities and to improve the adhesion of the next coat. Final sanding of the primers may be done by hand with a fine grade of sandpaper.