I am finally finished with my first Kirby; Whoot Whoot!

[ralph]

That might be a bit of a lie, I would guess that I will always tinker with it somewhat. Still, I am relatively pleased with the results:
• It did not burst into flames or trip a circuit breaker when I plugged it in for the first time.
• It sounds a lot nicer, the bearings were shot.
• Thanks to electrolux~137’s guide to polishing I still have all of my fingers and both eyes. Yes I wimped out and just did it by hand. It was good therapy for the past month…
• I had very good experiences with Kent Oyler ( Kirbyfans on eBay) and Vacpartssplusstore.com. Thank you to the posters on this forum that mentioned these two sellers.
• The information found here is invaluable, thank you for taking the time to share it with others.

Here is my somewhat cleaner than the last time you saw it, Kirby 518…

 

[ralph]

Due to a stupid move on my part the front cover is new and was polished by wheel. You can defiantly tell the difference between that shine and the hand job the rest of the parts have. Do not remove the big screw from the front cover you will strip out the cover and get to spend $40.00 more than you wanted to on your Kirby…

 

[ralph]

I need to figure out how to make the bag look nice like others here have…

 

[ralph]

I am not wild about the wheels. I should pick up some red ones soon.

 

[ralph]

See, there is no smoke billowing from the vacuum.

 

[kirbyotronic]

It looks very nice, you did a great job!

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Those gray wheels (and Sani Em-Tor bottom) are original. In fact, they made their debut midway through production of the 515 and continued through to the model 561.

~Ben

 

[thermokid]

Oh My Gosh!!!!!

Your Kirby is absolutely beautiful. I wish all of my Kirby's looked that nice. What did you use on the aluminum to make it so shiny??? I have used Mothers mag polish and 0000 steel wool and then buffed it with a soft rag, and my Kirby's never turned out that nice. A friend of mine said he had a G4 that looked awful and he used something in a can called Never Dull, and then the Mothers after that and his came out really nice too. And where ever did you get that bag it is cool..I have a lot of Kirby's about 50 now so I have a lot of hand polishing to do. Thanks in advance for all of your suggestions guys..... Dan

 

[luxg]

Ralph, what a fantastic job!!  You should be very proud!!!!

 

[vinvac]

Awesome Job Ralph!


Those were truly beautiful machines!

I think the bag looks good as well.

You won't find a better vacuum!

Morgan

 

[henry200]

Congratulations

That's a fantastic polishing job, and all the more because you did it by hand!  I would have thought it was machine buffed.  I like the new bag.  I should get one for my 515 before they're all gone.  A red bumper/cuff around the base of the bag will finish it off nicely.


 


Neil

 

[hoovercelebrity]

That's absolutely stunning! Such a beautiful machine! Thanks so much for sharing!

Fred

 

[kenmore81]

So shiny! What's wrong with the bag? I think it looks very nice.


Kenny.

 

[brandon_w_t]

Where did you locate that BAG? I love it!

You did an incredible job on that kirby!


There are still a couple places that you can buy the grey wheels. Will look beautiful with new ones!

 

[whirlpolf]

holy Mother!

This is unreal!
The Kirby looks shinier than a freshly bought one would look like.
Just supernatural!

Man, you are a genius! Kudos and an admiring shamalama bow.
I am blinded.

How the heck...? I am stunned! Wow!

 

[ralph]

Thank you all for your kind words.

Brandon_W_t; the bag came from Vacummpartsplusstore.com. It is their part number K501 and was $15.00. I purchased a second one for my 509.

I like the bag, I am just not happy with the way it hangs on the vacuum. I think the new bag holder/chain might be a bit longer than the original one. If this is the case I will shorten the new one to match the old one. The other issue is the bag needs to relax a bit perhaps I should steam it to help get rid of the fold creases.

Thermokid, I first used sandpaper 220, 320, 400, 600, 1500, then 0 and 00 steel wool. Then I used Mothers, Simichrome and Blue Magic with liberal amounts of elbow grease in each case. I would agree with electrolux~137 in his post a few weeks ago, do not use sandpaper. You can see scratches in the motor casing near the on off switch in the above photo.

KirbyClassicIII, I guess I got luck with the Sani Em-Tor bottom, it came with an ugly grey bottom and I thought the red would look better. Looks like I will be ordering new gray wheels shortly!

Vinvac, I have been bitten by the vacuum bug pretty hard and do not know if I can agree with your last statement. On one hand I agree with you but the word better is hard to define and there are so many vacuums out there. LOL! See the picture below…

 

[kirbyvacuum]

New Kirby

Hi Ralph Being a KIRBY lover for almost 60 years ( Boy am i old)You did a WONDERFUL JOB Thanks for the pictures. Was this all hand done or machine and hand. Enjoy Doug

 

[vacumaniac]

Awesome job!!! Looks showroom worthy

 

[djtaylor]

Ralph, you machine looks stunning. Great job.
Justin