Dent-All Work

A car-repair shop was the last thing on this musician’s mind

It’s 8 a.m. on Colburn Street in Kalihi. The aroma of paint lingers in the early morning air as two technicians inspect repairs made to a brand-new BMW sport utility vehicle. Outside, in the driveway, another man uses tools to remove a fist-size dent from a four-door sedan. Parked next to him are five more injured vehicles. Some bare minor scrapes. Others obviously must stay overnight.

THE DOCTOR IS IN: Janine Kuahine, Jerry and Bernadette Rabago fix automotive patients at Dent Doctors.

Welcome to Dent Doctors, a shop that removes dings and scratches from more than 2,500 vehicles annually. Dent Doctors uses “paintless dent removal,” a method that fixes dents without damaging the vehicle’s original paint. A highly trained technician uses slim tools to reach difficult areas, such as the inside of car doors or beneath hoods and trunks. The technician then pounds and sculpts the dent from the inside out, rarely touching the exterior panel.

Dent Doctors is the brainchild of Jerry Rabago, a California-born Las Vegas musician who came to Hawaii 14 years ago. In the early 1990s, he and his wife, Bernadette, performed in the Waikiki band Bernadette and the Sunshine Co. She sang. He played guitar. They later created the country group Red Hot Mama and the Cow Patty Daddies.

Jerry and Bernadette had loyal followers. The duo was successful, creatively and financially. An auto-body repair shop was the last thing on their musical minds.

“I never would have gotten into this business if I wasn’t challenged by my wife’s old friends,” Jerry recalls. “They told me, ‘You should see what we do. It’s something you can’t do.’” Competitive by nature, Jerry took a hammer to his new Chevy S10 truck, and, every night, inflicted dents and repaired them using paintless removal. He practiced for several months and perfected his technique. “My truck was worse for wear,” he says.

In 1997, he sold his jet ski and motorcycle, borrowed money from his family and applied for a business license. He then bought a small ad in the Yellow Pages and hit the road.

Dent Doctors originally began as a mobile, door-to-door service. Jerry drove his Chevy truck all over Oahu, fielding calls and repairing vehicles on the spot. He also brought work home – until neighbors in Ewa complained to the cops about unidentified, dented vehicles parked in their driveway. Jerry then moved his business to a rented parking lot and tiny office space in Kakaako. He didn’t have to worry about advertising. Satisfied clients spread the word for him, and the company’s black-and-white signage bore two red crosses that drove brand recognition. “If you do a good job, they’ll tell one person. But if you do a bad job, they’ll tell 10 people,” he says.

Fast forward nine years. Today, Dent Doctors employs eight and projects annual gross sales of $1 million. Jerry says his biggest challenge is finding and retaining good employees. His wife, Bernadette, and niece, Janine, work full-time at Dent Doctors.

For the first few years, Bernadette and Jerry juggled their business with weekend performances. “It wasn’t easy,” she recalls. “We knew we could do both, but we would have been up all night.”

The couple decided to leave the music industry for good and concentrate on Dent Doctors, instead. It’s been close to five years since thecouple performed together. “I miss singing,” Bernadette says. “But it’s not every day you have the opportunity to start a brand-new life.”

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