In 1979 at the age of 13, Renny Doyle started detailing aircraft to help get his mom and grandmother off welfare. Later that summer, he detailed his first car.
“From there, the company just kept growing,” Doyle said.
Business continued to grow, but in 2005 it skyrocketed shortly after he and his team detailed the first ever jet-powered Air Force One, known as SAM 970.
“It hit the news, and with the internet coming along rapidly, we started getting requests from people who wanted us to train and coach them,” Doyle explained. “So, in 2005, I said, ‘We’ll give it a shot,’ so I put my first class on, and it took off.”
Detailing Success
Big Bear, CA
909-366-0909
detailingsuccess.com
Facebook: @autodetailingschool
Instagram: @detailingsuccess
YouTube: @Renny Doyle Detailing Success
Company At A Glance...
Type: Mentoring/Training for Detailers
Facility Employees: Three
In Business Since: 2005
Number of Locations: One
Production Space: 5,000 square feet
Doyle then sold his detailing shops and fully committed to coaching detailers.
Doyle’s current company, Detailing Success, which he runs with his wife, has headquarters in Big Bear, CA, with five other locations in New Jersey, Texas, Oregon, Florida and Northern California.
“We do advanced five-day courses and extreme one-day training here in Big Bear, while our other locations focus solely on our extreme one-day classes,” he explained. “We have three full-time employees in Big Bear. The technicians and entrepreneurs who run our other locations are trained and coached by us first.”
Doyle added, “So our five other locations are independent businesses with their own training, like a licensing program.”
Autobody News asked Doyle why his business stands out in the industry.
“We’ve been detailing for a long time; it’s a low-entry-cost business,” he said. “So, we knew many detailers creating fairly well-paying jobs, but not businesses.”
Doyle said when he and his wife started Detailing Success, they wanted to do it differently.
“We educate the people we engage with at high technical levels, so their skill sets are high, and, most importantly, we tie everything back to profits,” he explained. “It always comes back to running a legitimate business, earning as much as possible, and having a good life while doing it.”
Recently, Doyle embarked on another venture, creating a polishing tool with Dynabrade. He started using Dynabrade tools 20 years ago, but met with the company’s California rep, Matt Denney, a few years ago.
“We built up a great friendship and colleague relationship,” he said. “I started getting more involved with Dynabrade and seeing what they’re doing.”
He said Dynabrade started creating liquid products, compounds and polishes around that time.
“We have our line of detailing products, but we’re pretty Switzerland,” Doyle explained. “We believe that if everyone is doing better, we’ll do better.”
So, Detailing Success and Dynabrade started collaborating, creating a “great opportunity” to sell their wares.
At that point, Doyle said, he had wanted to develop his own tool for the past four or five years. He said he asked himself who he could trust to help him with this dilemma, and Dynabrade was the answer.
“It’s a revolutionary polisher,” he said. “And it has been designed by people who touch tools to paint: body shops, detailers, dealerships, even a fire department; they’ve all been in the testing and development stage.”
Doyle said he’s proud to have built an ergonomically correct tool.
“It’s called a GDA---geared dual action tool, which is unique. It brings a lot of qualities to the table,” he explained. “Normally, where the internals are steel, many of ours are composites, which absorb and dissipate heat better and lighten the tool.”
He added the tool has a low profile, so people using it on paint found it easy to handle.
“It’s a tough tool, and it goes through everything, so during testing, we started calling it the Warthog,” he said. “We’ve done drop testing and really beat this thing up.”
In July, Doyle and his team commemorated the 20th anniversary of The Detailers of Air Force One by once again tackling the massive project at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA.
“During the project, we introduced the tool to the public,” he said. “From July 9-18, we put hundreds of hours on these tools. It was the first time the tools were used en masse.”
Doyle’s team detailed 17 aircrafts over eight days.
Autobody News asked Doyle what body shops would benefit from using this tool.
“One of the weakest links in all of our businesses, especially body shops, is skilled personnel,” he explained. “And this tool does all, so you’ll get better work with less training.”
Doyle referred to the tool as “the Apple iPhone of polishers.”
“We’ve simplified it: You can cut with it, you can finish with it, it’s durable, and it’s not confusing to learn,” he explained. “So, the chance of damage is lessened greatly.
“It’s a modern-day machine,” he added.
“You can put it in the hands of a body shop owner or manager, and they’ll be able to develop their skill-based technicians much quicker,” Doyle said. “And if you lose people or there are shifts in personnel, there’s no big hang-up trying to get somebody up to speed. It’s a relatively easy tool to learn.”
Dynabrade
800-828-7333 x536
ron.veiders@dynabrade.com
www17.dynabrade.com
Facebook: @Dynabrade
YouTube: @DynabradeInc
Instagram: @dynabrade_inc
To read more auto body shop profiles in the October 2023 Shop and Product Showcase, click here.
