A rare kirby!!

[kirbymodel2c]

Hi this a rare kirby. Anyone guess why?.....

 

[crevicetool]

James,

I am not familiar enough with Kirbys to tell. I can't wait to be told though. Is it something pretty obvious that I can't see?

anxious....

Rick

 

[myvacsrock]

Cuz...

The handle is half broken? Lol, sorry

 

[kirbymodel2c]

umm nope not the handle

Lol umm nope not the handle...

Its a 508 by the way it arrived today!!

 

[kirbyotronic]

Is it a Canadian made Kirby?

Alex

 

[kirbymodel2c]

Nope

Nope lol carry on guessing ;o)

 

[kirbyotronic]

Was it one of the first 508's made?

C'mon you're torturing me here!

 

[joe22]

any early kirby in the uk is rare

 

[kirbyman89]

All original parts?

 

[kirbyman89]

all original parts?

 

[electrolux~137]

Well, I've never seen a Kirby with a Sofa attachment before. Is that it? ;P

 

[electrolux~137]

Well, I too am stumped... It appears to be either a 508 or 509 - if it was a 510, the belt lifter would have the newer, more streamlined Kirby logo like the one in my attached image; although the photo is blurry it does appear that the belt lifter has the older-style logo as is on the two boxes in your photo.

So I'm gonna guess it's a 508 which was a key transitional model from black trim to gray.

 

[electrolux~137]

oh duhh, reading back I saw you did reveal that it's a 508 - I had overlooked that (it's 5 a.m. - got up because I couldn't sleep and my brain is blurry).

Beyond that, which in and of itself is pretty rare, it's hard to imagine what else makes it rare since the photo is not very clear.

Inquiring Minds Want To Know

 

[kirbymodel2c]

Ok!!

Ok here it is...

Its a 230-240 volt kirby model 508. It came from Africa!!
It belonged to a Artist which she told me about but can't remember who lol.

Kirby only came in to the UK in about 1973/4
So I was very suprised to find a 230-240 volt out of the USA from back then as the 230-240 volt kirbys are only made in the texas plant in the USA.

So here is another project to reconditon lol.
Maybe in the new year.... As I'm very busy at the mo...

Hope that info is a suprise for you all....

James )

 

[caligula]

Wow!

So Kirby's were sold in Africa!

 

[seamusuk]

WOW!

Hey James

Was it an Ebay find???

How does it run?- it must be strange not needing a transformer for one that age lol

Seamus

 

[electrolux~137]

That's amazing, but I doubt it was sold in Africa. More likely it was purchased in the US and taken to Africa when the owner moved there.

Does it run? I wonder if it sounds the same as the 110-volt model.

Very amazing find!!

 

[kirbymodel2c]

umm

Hi all, I got it off the internet off a shop site not ebay.
A collector off here told me about it. He was tempted to buy it but was not sure how to go about it. plus it was expensive.
2000r plus £170 postage.

So if it was sold in the US would kirby covert it to 240volt for them on request?????

I've not pluged it in yet as the cable is badly damaged.

Oh I also found out that the later run of 505s (1946 0nwards) with the belt lifter came with the same cardboard attachment carrying case as the 508 and the same shipping box instead of the earlier style thiner box which was the same shipping box for the 3C and 4C.
So the carrying case was introduced with the 505 not 508 as I had 1st thought.

)James

 

[joe22]

amazing, who would of thought it was built in my state (TEXAS)