huskyvacs
Well-known member
Another new vacuum for the collection! This time it's a 1976 Kirby Classic Omega 1-CB that has been rebuilt into a Kirby Classic III style. This is the first Kirby that I have ever seen or found at a thrift store since I started collecting in late 2017. I have found a Kirby hose, and Kirby belts, and Kirby bags at thrift stores - but never an actual Kirby itself. There was one time I seen a Kirby G4 at my local Restore being used to vacuum the entryway rugs, and I checked the store for an entire month every 3 days for the vacuum to come out for sale and it never did. I suspect an employee stole it for themselves.
When I first seen this one in "the vacuum corner" I was like "oh my god its one I don't have", so I grabbed it. It did not fit in their tiny carts so I had to unhook the brushroll nozzle in order to get it to fit in there. I was certain it was a Kirby Classic III the entire time, however when I got it home, and I got to taking the photos of it, I noticed the label said "Classic Omega 1-CB" on the bottom and I was like "huh????".
I could not find any information on this particular conversion (or any other Omega 1-CB's converted to this scheme for that matter), but I did find another old post on Vacuumland of someone else's 1-CB decorated in blue for the Tradition color scheme, so it kind of made sense for the one I have in why it's decorated like a Classic III. I am not sure if Kirby did this as an official conversion when someone sent their Kirby in for a rebuild, or if this was done by a shady vacuum shop trying to sell unsold older Omega models they had sitting around as the newest model and hoping the buyer never found out.
My determination of why I believe it was totally rebuilt and not just a change of the color scheme is that there is some possibly missing screws and some loose screws here and there, so it leads me to believe it has been worked on internally as well as being modified into a completely different model.
Making a long story short, due to a series of two different cashier's mistakes with the purchase (I bought 2 cartloads of stuff this same day) and some kind of very strange stroke of luck, I got this vacuum for absolutely free (it was originally $9.99). So I was just absolutely thrilled to get it, and even happier when I found out it didn't cost anything!
When I first seen this one in "the vacuum corner" I was like "oh my god its one I don't have", so I grabbed it. It did not fit in their tiny carts so I had to unhook the brushroll nozzle in order to get it to fit in there. I was certain it was a Kirby Classic III the entire time, however when I got it home, and I got to taking the photos of it, I noticed the label said "Classic Omega 1-CB" on the bottom and I was like "huh????".
I could not find any information on this particular conversion (or any other Omega 1-CB's converted to this scheme for that matter), but I did find another old post on Vacuumland of someone else's 1-CB decorated in blue for the Tradition color scheme, so it kind of made sense for the one I have in why it's decorated like a Classic III. I am not sure if Kirby did this as an official conversion when someone sent their Kirby in for a rebuild, or if this was done by a shady vacuum shop trying to sell unsold older Omega models they had sitting around as the newest model and hoping the buyer never found out.
My determination of why I believe it was totally rebuilt and not just a change of the color scheme is that there is some possibly missing screws and some loose screws here and there, so it leads me to believe it has been worked on internally as well as being modified into a completely different model.
Making a long story short, due to a series of two different cashier's mistakes with the purchase (I bought 2 cartloads of stuff this same day) and some kind of very strange stroke of luck, I got this vacuum for absolutely free (it was originally $9.99). So I was just absolutely thrilled to get it, and even happier when I found out it didn't cost anything!