SUMMIT TWP — Closing in on age 60, Rick Fennell has spent much of his life perfecting rustproofing products and processes that protect vehicles from the harshest winters Western Pennsylvania can muster.

Ask anyone from Butler County or the surrounding region: Rick Fennell Rustproofing is as synonymous with Butler as a Primanti Bros. sandwich is to Pittsburgh.

But these days, as Fennell reflects on the more than 40 years spent at his modest shop along Route 356 just outside Butler, he is proud of the storms he’s weathered in business and in life, the niche he’s carved out and maintained, and, most importantly, the business he can pass down to his children and grandchildren.

Fennell unknowingly started down the path of regional rustproofing fame when he grew up not far from his current shop helping with his family’s mining business.

Before he was old enough to drive, he started displaying his mechanical aptitude by working on heavy equipment during the summer and company service trucks during the winter. He also started fixing wrecked cars in his spare time.

Fennell had planned on pursuing a degree in mining engineering after graduating high school. However, six months before graduating, the mining industry hit a rough patch and the family business went under.

With the college option off the table, he decided to start fixing cars full time and went into business for himself in 1972.

So, at 17 and only about two weeks removed from high school, Fennell had obtained the proper licensing to fix and sell vehicles, thanks in part to a couple older businessmen who saw his potential and took him under their wing, Saul “Bookie” Garber and Pete Malinski.

“When I started out doing auto body repair and painting, I had no idea I’d ever be in the rustproofing business,” Fennell said.

However, rustproofing and undercoating were extremely common at the time, and he figured he’d try his hand at them, too.

“There were probably a dozen name brands out there of rustproofing and undercoatings,” he said.

“Every car dealer pretty much did it. Every garage and gas station had a pump laying in the corner somewhere.”

However, Fennell drew from his experience of working on heavy equipment that had been exposed to harsh conditions. He had learned how grease and oil, when exposed to bare metal, seals and lubricates surfaces, staving off rust.

That led to him developing a wetter, greasier solution that was different from most of the wax-based substances that would harden over time.

Fennell started applying his product to customers’ vehicles, and word started to spread about its effectiveness.

“I started out with a floor jack and jack stands and laid under the cars,” he said.

Within two years, Fennell started building his garage around the rustproofing and undercoating business. He installed lifts and built separate areas for washing, preparing and applying the products to vehicles.

“The business basically just took off,” he said.

“I can’t put a price on the support that my customers have given me over the years.”

Fennell’s business peaked during the mid-1980s when he employed 11 people, but in 1986, he decided to close the auto body part of the operation to focus on rustproofing. He said changes in the insurance industry also influenced the decision.

The rustproofing and undercoating business continued as usual, with customers ranging from individuals to fleets coming from across Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio and West Virginia.

Then, in 2003, Fennell started to give serious thought to packaging and selling his product. By 2005, Ducarle Enterprises was born.

The business derives its name from the first few letters of each of Fennell’s three children’s first names, Dustin Fennell, Carmella Solito and Leah Felmlee.

Felmlee, who runs the division of the business, said it has grown slowly and steadily as planned.

The rustproofing, which is mixed to Fennell’s specifications and put in spray cans by a manufacturer in Wayne, Mich., can be found in about 50 auto parts stores in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Its intended customer is the auto restoration enthusiast or the do-it-yourselfer, but it can be used on any oxidizing metal that sits outside.

“We’d like it to just be a product that guys ... working on their cars themselves can use to help preserve the integrity of their cars,” Felmlee said.

But Felmlee, a graduate of Clarion University whose background is in communications and marketing, isn’t Fennell’s only child to decide to be involved in the family business.

About six years ago, Dustin Fennell, now the head rustproofer, officially joined the operation.

Rick Fennell credited two main factors for his longevity in business.

The first is having a product that works in this region’s climate.

Because of the seasonal variations in this part of the country, with the freezing and thawing, Fennell said it is important not to use a rustproofing product that hardens.

Varying temperatures cause metal to expand and contract, which pulls at welds and rivets. That allows for oxidation to set in on previously unexposed metal.

Fennell said some parts of the country don’t have to worry about that, so products that harden are OK. But here, a greasy, oily product is needed to penetrate the metal and make sure all surfaces are protected.

The second factor is knowing how a car is put together so applying the rustproofing can be done correctly.

“I have people restoring cars that I (rustproofed) in the ’70s and ’80s. They’ve pulled them out of the weeds; they’ve gotten them out of buildings,” he said.

“What were daily drivers back then are now what people want to restore, and I’ve had people come in here and call me to tell me these things are like brand new — the numbers are still on the frames and so-forth,” he said.

Both Fennell’s products and processes are trademarked with the U.S. Patent Office. Along with creating the product, he has developed tools that help with applying rustproofing inside body panels.

While the automotive industry has advanced considerably in regards to quality and technology during the past 40 years, Fennell said rustproofing continues to be relevant.

“Vehicles are rusting worse than they ever have in the history of the automobile,” he said, explaining that the cause is the corrosive chemicals applied to roads during the winter in this part of the country.

Whereas it used to be the sheet metal that would rust through, Fennell said the heavy iron and steel cross members underneath vehicles is what is deteriorating today.

In the next few years, Fennell said the goal is to continue to expand the reach of Ducarle Enterprises and add another product or two to the line.

Looking farther out, he said he could see branching out into training people who would offer Rick Fennell Rustproofing at other facilities.

That ties in with a philosophy he adopted about 15 years ago.

“I tell people, ‘If you find a better product, I’d like to see it so my son and I can use it on ours,’” he said.

However, his No. 1 goal is to honor his children and grandchildren through the company and give them a legacy to own in the future.

Fennell said there are always ups and downs in business, but there can never be a price on independence.

“When you really get busy, and you sometimes think it’s out of control, it’s the payoff for hanging in there,” he said.

“I vowed never to quit.”