Dulaney came to Rome from Anniston, Ala. where he grew up and worked part time for a car wash while he was in high school. “I have a mechanical background and I helped worked on the equipment and that was no problem for me,” Dulaney said. “I got to looking for a location to build a car wash. I looked as far away as Dothan, Ala., Chattanooga and of course Rome.”
The original location in Rome was opened in 1962 right at the Five Points before the DOT acquired his property nine years later and Dulaney moved about a half block closer to downtown Rome, the current location. He built a second location at 1705 Shorter Ave., at the intersection with Burnett Ferry Rd. He bought the business at 701 Shorter Ave. in 1990 and closed the location at Shorter and Burnett Ferry.
He added the Magic Lube to both Rome locations in 1991.
He also opened the first Magic Wand self- service car wash on North Broad in 1978. That franchise has grown to include several additional locations in Rome and Cedartown.
Dulaney employs 14 people at the North Rome site and three at the West Rome location.
On his best day, Dulaney has run as many as 500 cars through the wash in Rome, though he said that on a good day nowadays his crew washes about 200 cars.
I don’t know how much we go through per day but I have a pretty good water bill,” Dulaney said.
Always a family-operated business, both of Dulaney’s sons, Brian and Barry Dulaney, have been active in management of the Rome businesses. Brian Dulaney has opened a couple of Goo Goo Express Car Wash locations in Memphis and Chatta-nooga though he still calls Rome home.
Barry Dulaney has remained active in the day-to-day op-erations of the Rome Magic Touch shops.
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