By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
I first met Doug Wrucke of Get U Movin’ Mobile Car Detailing at a Limestone Leaders BNI meeting, and he made us all laugh. OK, that was well and good, but it was subsequent encounters that made me realize that car detailing is something that is deeply in his DNA, and he is truly passionate about taking “good care of your baby,” meaning your car, truck, Piper Cub airplane, RV, boat or firetruck. Yep, he has done them all and has 25 years of experience under his belt. Literally, Doug has detailed thousands of transportation machines, and wrote a detailed manual regarding how to detail them the “Southern California” way.
Doug served in the Marine Corps, has been a CFO of a telecommunications services company, and is a pastor/missionary. His wife is from the Philippines, her name is Marilyn, and she is clearly the love of his life. “You married up, bro,” I teased. Their story is epic, and I hope to get to share it with you someday!
So, on to the topic of how to “Get U Movin’.” Doug is originally from Oceanside, California, and if you hail from the land of the Beach Boys, it is just understood that your car routinely needs a “gleam team.” Doug invested in a week-long detailing course that back in the day cost $800, which was a big risk. It was sponsored by a well-known company called Tropic Shield, and he was off and running toward being an entrepreneur…sort of. Doug looked at me and said, “The way to learn detailing is to do detailing.” He started off talking to people in parking lots of shopping malls, and built relationships by building routes. He would come to certain areas on certain days, and the rest is history. “We built a business and had a lot of fun,” he said. Doug has taught others to do detailing, and has often found that what “separates the men from the boys” is the fact that in order to be successful, you have to do it until it’s done, no matter what. It’s just a DNA thing. In a word, Doug IS the “one man gleam team for YOUR movin’ machine.”
He lives and ministers in Hartselle, and does work all over North Alabama. Besides his work ethic and proven results, I love the way Doug puts people at ease when it comes to “taking care of their baby.” He told me, “I have seen and cleaned it all — chocolate milk, goat throw up, and everything in between.” That includes McDonald’s and Burger King wrappers that were tossed in the back seat that stacked up to a full four feet high. So, I took him outside of my office to see my work truck, which was named Oscar by its previous owner. “Give me four hours, and I will get it done,” he said with a smile. I can hardly wait, and I KNOW Oscar is going to look awesome!
Doug does what he calls “organizing your car.” He divides the “stuff” he finds into trash and treasure, and has literally returned hundreds of dollars to owners, along with paper clips, receipts, and fountain pens. Windows sparkle, “dead paint” gets revived, dirt that you didn’t know you had has been totally cleaned up, and you now have a car that is no doubt cleaner than the day it rolled off the assembly line. “I CAN’T leave a gum wrapper,” he told me with a chuckle.
Doug also does what is known as “claying,” if your car needs it. Claying is a way of applying a special clay designed to get rid of rough spots, and few people do it. Doug has also developed his own special “secret sauce” when it comes to putting a shine on the inside as well as the outside. Would you like to know the toughest part of detailing a Piper Cub airplane? “The underside of the wings,” he said, and added, “You have GOT to do those first, or else you’ll be too tired to do the job well.” Would you like to know why, when you meet Doug that his shirt is not tucked in? Well, it turns out that while it would be in some people’s minds that it is not the way to make a great first impression, it is in fact just the opposite. He leaves his shirt untucked because he refuses to run the risk of scratching the hood of your car with his
belt buckle. He explained to me, “My shirt isn’t untucked, I am covering my belt buckle so I can take good care of your baby.”
Doug will stick by his estimates, and do the work ‘til it’s done. He has maintenance packages, mini-wash packages that are better than many competitors’ detailing bids, and does it for less. If this is what you are looking for — someone whose DNA demands that he gets “down to the detail” — then give Doug Wrucke a call today at 256-612-4450. He will leave you with a choice of scent for your car, a mint, a flyer, a smile, and your “baby” will have never looked better.
By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
December 6, 2024
