Our History
Gaining Tools for the Future
The question that is always asked of me is how I got started in resurfacing bathtubs. I graduated Vocational School in 1988 in Auto Body Repair, with plans to enter in the field. The only place hiring once I graduated was a production Body Shop, they paid me $4.00 and hour to spray cars. I worked for them a couple of years and one day I asked for more money and I was turned down. I left the Body Shop and began working at a car dealership driving a tow truck and changing oil in vehicles with the understanding that when the Body Shop had an opening, I would be transferred. I later found out the dealership was pleased with my work on the tow truck and in the maintenance department and my transfer to the Body Shop was not going to happen. I left the dealership and worked in a couple of different factories, one of which I spent 7 years hating everyday of it. Each day of those 7 years I prayed to the Lord to get me out of there.
Obey the Father
One day at church the Lord spoke to me and told me to speak to a man about a job. I obeyed and when I told the man about my background, he told me he was praying to the Lord to send someone with my skills his way. This gentleman sold business opportunities in resurfacing bathtubs. He was in need of someone with my skills to be a trainer for people purchasing the business opportunities. At the time he did not have the money to hire me, but the following weekend he was going to a show and figured they would have to sell 7 business opportunities to be in a position to hire me. They did not sell 7 that weekend, they sold 10. I was hired as a main trainer, ran the research and development department, and was Hazardous Material certified to run the shipping department. One of my major responsibilities was keeping the salesmen in sample pieces to show at the business opportunity shows, these samples had to be as near perfect as possible. The salesman would tell me my samples, “looked like glass, they were so slick.”
Keep the Faith
In December 1999, all the shows the business sold opportunities in had closed without warning. The company was in the process of turning from a business opportunity to a franchise, this was not to be a success. Without the avenue to sell business opportunities, become a franchise or have enough buyers for the product to remain in business, the doors closed. I was the only employee that remained with them until the very end. While on unemployment, trying to figure out what I was going to do, I received several phone calls from people needing their claw foot tubs resurfaced. How they found out about me, to this day, I have no clue. I resurfaced some claw foot tubs on the side for extra money before Christmas without advertisement for the place I was working for. I had the tools and the ability to get the product to do the jobs, the only thing I did not have was a place to do the work.
His Image Restoration, LLC Begins
After many talks and discussions, my beautiful wife (reluctantly) and I decided to turn our two car garage into a workshop and spray booth for bathtubs. So I began working out of my garage with the intent to resurface claw foot bathtubs from my home using the same process I used for my sample work. These tubs looked like brand new, but I soon found out there was not enough work to keep me going. It was around this time I began receiving calls from people interested in changing the colors of their bathtubs in their homes. I borrowed a pick-up truck from my Mother-in-law and took my show on the road doing location work changing the colors of peoples bathtubs. I began advertising as I could afford it and it snowballed from there. I went from the borrowed S-10 Pick-up truck to a retired church van to at present a retired ambulance that is a rolling advertisement and we call bathtub rescue 1. Having this business has not been easy, I would not have done any of this without the help of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the support of my family, my parents, my mother-in-law and our friends. I am no millionaire (money wise) because of what I do and I struggle at times as anyone, but I am thankful for the opportunity to be my own boss and do something I enjoy while providing people with a much needed service.
