Success is in the details

BENTON, Mo. -- When Harley Scherer was 12 years old, he asked his parents where he could find a job that would earn him enough money to restore a 1969 Hurst/SC Rambler sitting at an uncle's shop.

Told he was too young to employ, Harley was undeterred. "He sat around the house for about two days, bored stiff," mother Judy Scherer said. "But he's a very smart kid. He went upstairs to his computer, worked up some business cards and made his own signs. He said, 'I'll start my own business and hire myself.'"

Harley Scherer, 15, stood in front of the shell of a car that he hopes to one day fix up using money earned from his car detailing business. (Aaron Eisenhauer)

With that, Scherer Auto Detailing of Benton was born. The business has netted Scherer -- now 15 and a sophomore at Kelly High School -- enough money to purchase a 1984 Nissan 300 ZX, a drum set, a welder, air compressor and tools that will be instrumental in rebuilding the limited-edition muscle car.

Harley's parents, Judy and Gary Scherer, are proud of their son's accomplishments. "He loves to be around cars," Judy Scherer said. "Him and his dad are motorheads, and he just tied into what he loved. It looks like a brand-new car when he is done."

A sign on Scott County Road 250 announces "Scherer Auto Detailing." Business cards, developed from the design Harley produced on his home computer, list the number of the cell telephone Judy and Gary Scherer purchased for him to keep up with customers.

And almost every weekend, there's another car in the driveway to get the treatment of a scrubbed interior, shined exterior and wheel well treatments to protect against mud and corrosion.

The whole process, Harley said, takes about 10 hours. He's learned which jobs come first and which to make part of the final cleanup.

"When I started, I really didn't know what to do first," he said. "Now I've got it down."

And when customers who aren't close to the family come in for the first time, they try to set the price with Gary Scherer, who said he always points to his son and says, "He's the one you've got to deal with."

Judy Scherer works in accounting at Rust & Martin Home Interiors; Gary Scherer is an avionics technician for Cape Avionics at the regional airport.

Scherer Automotive Detailing (Aaron Eisenhauer)

Harley said he's interested in becoming an automotive engineer, leading the design teams.

He and his father have already created some unusual machines. They took the 11-horsepower, single-cylinder engine out of a small lawn tractor, replaced it with a 19-horsepower two-cylinder engine and changed the drive pulley to enhance its speed. Stripped down, it is faster than many go-karts, they said.

Since he began the business, the price of the service has increased to a degree, Harley said. At first, he was charging $50 for his services. Now the going rate is about $75, depending on the amount of work.

Most of the customers are family friends -- the former owner of the County Seat restaurant is one customer, the manager of the Pave Stone Co. is another. And while at this time of year cold weather can make the job a little more difficult, Harley isn't deterred.

"There's more money in it than mowing grass," he said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126