Vehicle body builders
and repairers
Vehicle body builders and repairers construct and repair the bodies of road vehicles, and fit interior and exterior fittings to vehicle bodies.
- Employees (UK)
- 16k
- Median annual pay
- £34,848
- Exposure score ?
- 0.0/10 Minimal 1.5/10 Minimal strict reading, with tools is 1.5/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.0/10
- Wage exposure
- £0 £0
Higher exposure than 5% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Inspect individual parts, assemblies, or installations, using measuring instruments, such as calipers, scales, or micrometers.
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Maintain equipment, making repairs or modifications when necessary.
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Fabricate ducts for high efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maximize efficiency of systems.
For this role the labels do not surface obvious candidates, so the work would start with the highest-stakes tasks below and find the AI angle in conversation.
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Inspect individual parts, assemblies, or installations, using measuring instruments, such as calipers, scales, or micrometers.
-
Maintain equipment, making repairs or modifications when necessary.
-
Fabricate ducts for high efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maximize efficiency of systems.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Sheet Metal Workers" (47-2211.00).
What AI can already do
0 of 19 tasks, unaided
No tasks here are labelled as something an LLM can do unaided. Switch to 'With tools' above to see what changes when AI is paired with the right context.
What still needs a person
19 of 19 tasks
Inspect individual parts, assemblies, or installations, using measuring instruments, such as calipers, scales, or micrometers.
Maintain equipment, making repairs or modifications when necessary.
Fabricate ducts for high efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maximize efficiency of systems.
Fasten seams or joints together with welds, bolts, cement, rivets, solder, caulks, metal drive clips, or bonds to assemble components into products or to repair sheet metal items.
Transport prefabricated parts to construction sites for assembly and installation.
Install assemblies, such as flashing, pipes, tubes, heating and air conditioning ducts, furnace casings, rain gutters, or downspouts in supportive frameworks.
Hire, train, or supervise new employees or apprentices.
Lay out, measure, and mark dimensions and reference lines on material, such as roofing panels, using calculators, scribes, dividers, squares, or rulers.
Fabricate or alter parts at construction sites, using shears, hammers, punches, or drills.
Determine project requirements, such as scope, assembly sequences, or required methods or materials, using blueprints, drawings, or written or verbal instructions.
Maneuver completed roofing units into position for installation.
Convert blueprints into shop drawings to be followed in the construction or assembly of sheet metal products.
Select gauges or types of sheet metal or nonmetallic material, according to product specifications.
Shape metal material over anvils, blocks, or other forms, using hand tools.
Verify that heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are designed, installed, and calibrated in accordance with green certification standards, such as those of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
Trim, file, grind, deburr, buff, or smooth surfaces, seams, or joints of assembled parts, using hand tools or portable power tools.
Perform building commissioning activities by completing mechanical inspections of a building's water, lighting, or heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
Fasten roof panel edges or machine-made moldings to structures by nailing or welding.
Finish parts, using hacksaws or hand, rotary, or squaring shears.
Tasks via O*NET "Sheet Metal Workers" (47-2211.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 19 tasks, with tools
Determine project requirements, such as scope, assembly sequences, or required methods or materials, using blueprints, drawings, or written or verbal instructions.
Convert blueprints into shop drawings to be followed in the construction or assembly of sheet metal products.
What still needs a person
17 of 19 tasks
Inspect individual parts, assemblies, or installations, using measuring instruments, such as calipers, scales, or micrometers.
Maintain equipment, making repairs or modifications when necessary.
Fabricate ducts for high efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maximize efficiency of systems.
Fasten seams or joints together with welds, bolts, cement, rivets, solder, caulks, metal drive clips, or bonds to assemble components into products or to repair sheet metal items.
Transport prefabricated parts to construction sites for assembly and installation.
Install assemblies, such as flashing, pipes, tubes, heating and air conditioning ducts, furnace casings, rain gutters, or downspouts in supportive frameworks.
Hire, train, or supervise new employees or apprentices.
Lay out, measure, and mark dimensions and reference lines on material, such as roofing panels, using calculators, scribes, dividers, squares, or rulers.
Fabricate or alter parts at construction sites, using shears, hammers, punches, or drills.
Maneuver completed roofing units into position for installation.
Select gauges or types of sheet metal or nonmetallic material, according to product specifications.
Shape metal material over anvils, blocks, or other forms, using hand tools.
Verify that heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are designed, installed, and calibrated in accordance with green certification standards, such as those of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
Trim, file, grind, deburr, buff, or smooth surfaces, seams, or joints of assembled parts, using hand tools or portable power tools.
Perform building commissioning activities by completing mechanical inspections of a building's water, lighting, or heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
Fasten roof panel edges or machine-made moldings to structures by nailing or welding.
Finish parts, using hacksaws or hand, rotary, or squaring shears.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Skilled trades occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons