Heltp with polishing kirby!!!!

[clarkecombi]

Recently i won a Heritage 2 from ebay and ive been trying to polish it up. i took the steel wool and mothers polish to it,but ive noticed its got these spots..i believe Charles Lester refers to them as liver spots. I CANT GET THEM OUT. Ive tried everything. My G3 has the same problem. Could someone help me to get my Heritage 2 back to its formal glory..all info would be appreciated.

Sincerely

DB

 

[filterqueen83]

I use

Brasso and steel wool and it comes fairly clean quicker than mothers.

 

[vacuumkid3]

I think the only thing you can do is actually sand it with some 500 or higher grit sandpaper and then polish that out. Charles is definitely correct, though...buying a buffing wheel is one of the best investments for keeping polished aluminum vacuums looking great! Someone gave me a motor, and about 30 minutes later, I already made a mount for the motor, and then about $10, I had an arbor to mount the buffing wheels to the shaft! Good luck, and give that sandpaper a try!

~~K~~

 

[clarkecombi]

Thanks

Wont the sand pape scratch the metal?

 

[vacuumkid3]

Exactly! That's why you have to polish it afterwards. If I am not mistaken, those "liver spots" are pits in the metal where some aluminum compound (aluminum oxide, most likely) has built up. Using a buffing wheel, you can simply stick to a heavier polish and then work your way up. Try some 0, 00, 000, and the 0000 steel wool. That might be a little safer at first instead of sandpaper. But then again, sticking to a high-grit sandpaper would probably be just as effective. Try it on an inconspicuous spot first. Good luck, again!

~~K~~

(I just thought...try wet sanding...that might be a bit more effective!)

 

[vacuumkid3]

Oh! I just remembered! I think I read somewhere that when Kirby rebuilds vacuums, they take every metal piece off and sandblast it. Talk about abrasion! I'd hate to be the one to polish that afterwards! I was able to play around with a sandblaster once. I sandblasted a penny I found on the ground...and got down to the zinc! It was impressive, to say the least!

~~K~~

 

[clarkecombi]

Ok Ill give it a try...What kinda Cloth do u use for Polishing and would one of those things that mothers makes that goes on the end of a power drill to polish with be good.

 

[vacuumkid3]

Well...those microfiber cloths are good, or even just a little white towel. Used T-shirts are good...the white kind, that is. Any kind of power tool (small buffing pad/wheel) would accelerate the process, so I say go for it! Let us know what you did and how it works!

~~K~~

Here's a picture of my Sanitronic VII Miracle Head that I polished with the buffing wheel. If I recall, this was the first thing I ever polished. I also tried Mother's afterwards with 0000 steel wool...so here are the results! By the way...the fine lines come from me not going to the ultrafine polishing compound...I know now to go all the way!

 

[lux1521]

Recently I have experimented with taking wet sanding to the next level. I put some Flitz liquid metal polish on 600 grit sandpaper. It works really well. The polish melts off the crud while the sandpaper scrubs it away. It also leaves far fewer swirl marks than sandpaper alone and leaves the piece nicely prepared for machine buffing.

I used this technique on my Hoover 102. The reason I used this here was to keep a dull finish but avoid scratch markes. It worked fairly well and left a smooth dull finish. I think machine buffing would go extremely quickly if I chose to go that route(which I don't).

 

[clarkecombi]

Kool.

Well im going for the Highly Burn your eyes out shine........Someone sqaid mothers chrome cleaner.....does that work in the old kirbys or only on the new ones.

 

[lux1521]

The burn your eyes out shine is good. I'm just saying that you can sand with metal polish and you can then start on the real good polishing and get it done quicker that way, especialy if you have a really messy starting point. If you just have a bit of tarninsh I would not even bother with the sandpaper and go right to the polish.

The same polishes work for new and old Kirbys alike as far a I know. I have heard very good things about mothers polish but I have not tried it myself. I might not go with the chrome cleaner though. Make sure it works for aluminum. I have seen some chrome cleaning products that warn against use on aluminum, and might do some strange things.

 

[camelotshadow]

tried 0000 with mothers
have 600 wet dry sand paper

there's polishing then there's polishing
What do you have to do to get that mirror like shine?
Guess that's were power polishers can come in use
as I have to be careful with this as I might be getting a carpel tunel thing

 

[clarkecombi]

Well i tried it and the Rug nozzle turned out good,but the dang power plant has still got them spots...how long are u supposed to rub that polish in and Is there any trick or tool u can use to scrub it in real good

 

[louvac]

Kirby also uses Jeweler's Rouge. I believe there are three levels or colors. One is red, and I don't recall the color of the other two. I do know that Home Depot sold them. They are in stick form the size of kids sidewalk chalk. I guess these are primarily used with a buffing wheel. I have seen it done. You simply touch the stick lightly to the buffing wheel while it is turning and then touch the metal to the pad.

The Kirby plant does use these in their rebuild process. They also sand blast to remove imperfections. However, I am not privy to their entire buffing process.

Louis

 

[kc_kirby]

Has anyone tried using Oven Cleaner like Easy-Off to clean polished aluminum? My dad sent me a link to a video of a car restoration site that demonstrated polishing some alumininum strips from a car with Easy off, an orbital buffer and a cream metal polish like Wenol, Maas, Flitz, etc. It looked really easy but I saw some sites on the web advise against using oven cleaner on aluminum. So maybe its ok on some types of aluminum and not others? Just curious if anyone had tried it on a vacuum.

Chad Cunningham

 

[camelotshadow]

Never use oven cleaner on alum
Its really a reactive metal
likely to clous up on you

I thought about jewelers rouge
probably red, green & white

I might have to look into that

 

[vacuumkid3]

Oh, I would never dream of using oven cleaner! It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen!

By the way, I have always been the kid who finds a bottle that says, "Don't use this on aluminum" and go outside and find out why. I'll tell you why they don't recommend using it: it totally eats away at the aluminum foil. I am sure it contains some aqueous hydroxide such as NaOH, a.k.a. drain cleaner, reacts pretty well with aluminum. Anyways, I'll stick to my polish, but if I ever get a REALLY bad Kirby, I might give it a try!

~~K~~

 

[clarkecombi]

Oh I tried the Wet Sanding with 800 grit and it totaly dulled the Finish on my rug nozzle. I tried buffing it out but it stays Dull...Oh well it does have that retro Brushed aluminum look that is pretty cool.

 

[vacuumkid3]

Well, buy some 1500 grit and 2000 grit...that should do it! You just have to work your way up, I suppose! I bet it'll work...that way you shouldn't have those spots anymore!

~~K~~