NORTH WEBSTER - A detailing business that started out of Trent Rapp’s vehicle has grown to a three-bay building in North Webster.
At noon Wednesday, the North Webster-Tippecanoe Township Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Street Side Detailing, 413 N. Main St.
Rapp established his business in 2019 in Claypool.
“Originally, I started off mobile detailing out of a Subaru, and so finally I built up enough clientele I ran it out of my mom and dad’s place at their pole barn for a long time. Finally, I had enough clientele and moved into here,” he said.
What drew Rapp to have his business in North Webster, he said, was that he grew up around the North Webster area. He recalled going to Syracuse and Webster lakes growing up for fun activities like boating.
“And this is a nice busy road, and I like the location. I like the history of this building. This place is pretty cool, so I wanted to revamp it and make it look cool and kind of give it like an old gas station vibe,” he stated.
Describing what services Street Side Detailing offers, Rapp said, “We deal with taking crappy cars or not-so-crappy cars that are dirty and we get them perfect pretty much.”
He offers window tinting, vinyl work - graphics for companies, full-custom wraps, vinyl wraps, tailgate wraps.
Rapp has always been artistic, and said he’s always liked designing and drawing and coming up with his own stuff. He got into the wraps because it fit in with what he’s always liked to do.
He is considered a professional and has a number of certificates hanging on the shop wall to show what he’s been certified in, “which is interior, exterior, sanding methods, ceramic coatings. I’m one of the only people around here that is certified to work on marine vehicles or marine vessels.”
As for cost, Rapp said he’s more on the medium to higher-end on pricing.
“A full detail is around $350 to $400, but when you get into the paint correction type of stuff and sanding and boats, you’re looking around $1,000 to $3,000, depending on the package and what we offer. There’s different levels of our ceramic coat where the higher the package, they protect against scratching, rock chips and stuff like that and it’s self-healing as well,” he explained.
He chose the name Street Side Detailing because when he started his business he was always working on the street and in driveways so the name made sense. When the opportunity to buy the building in North Webster came up, “I was like, man, it really fits the name now,” he said.
Street Side Detailing opened at 413 N. Main St., North Webster, on Jan. 15.
One of the bays of the former car shop has a floor lift.
“I’m going to clean under vehicles, and I want to start getting into undercoating. I’m not doing it yet, but I will announce that later,” he said. “Then I can take wheels off and do in between the wheels and make it easier to do all that.”
Currently, the business is just Rapp but he’s looking to eventually get more people on board.
“I’m very busy right now. I’m three weeks out right now,” he said. “Usually, in the winter time I’m pretty slow, but even before I got this place I couldn’t keep up.”
Anyone interested in Rapp’s services can stop by or call 574-265-3650. The website can be found at https://www.stsidedetailing.com/.