Tools and Equipment
Tools and Equipment
The exam checks that you can select, set up and maintain hand and power tools used in body repair, and that you know the purpose of each tool rather than just its name.
Core rules
- Panel hammers are graded by face shape: cross-peen and pick hammers for rough shaping, shrinking hammers with serrated faces for controlling stretched steel, and slappers for low-crown areas.
- Dollies back up the hammer. A heel dolly reaches behind return flanges; a general-purpose dolly is used off-dolly for planishing.
- A stud welder and slide hammer pull shallow dents without access behind the panel; a body file reveals high and low spots.
- Random-orbit sanders with 80–180 grit discs remove paint and shape filler; angle grinders cut and grind but need the guard and correct disc size.
- Spray guns: gravity-feed HVLP at 1.3–1.4 mm nozzle for basecoat; suction guns for primer; clean immediately after use.
- Compressors need daily draining and air tools need oil before use.
Worked example
A low-crown dent in a door skin has no rear access. Reasoning: clean the area, use a stud welder to attach pins, pull with the slide hammer in small increments, then planish with a hammer and dolly and finish with a DA sander and 80-grit. A body file shows whether the crown is restored before filler.
Traps
Using a screwdriver as a pry bar, fitting an oversize disc to a grinder, running a grinder without its guard, and using a wood chisel on metal. Candidates also lose marks for naming a "dolly" when the question asks for a "spoon" or for a "slapper".