The lining of a furnace is automaticlly repaired by use of a movable transport car on which a vertically disposed spray pipe is capable of being vertically displaced along its longitudinal axis and of being rotated about its longitudinal axis. The transport car is moved to a position underlying a furnace, and the spray pipe is elevated into the furnace to thereby dispose a spray nozzle on the end of the spray pipe within the furnace. The spray nozzle is directed to spray refractory material onto the abraded, eroded, and spalled areas of the refractory lining within the furnace.