Kirby 562 in green trim?

[samh]

I’m a new here, and I have a question about a Kirby 562 that I just picked up. It has the (somewhat dirty) whitish cord with brown plugs and the brown trim and wheels to match. (It also came with a slightly bedraggled accessories box full of some (most?) of the accessories.) Unexpectedly, it has a greenish handle, greenish bag topper, and greenish bag bottom. I’ve attached three pictures, but the one that best shows the color well in the light is the bottom. Despite the poor pictures, all three bits are in the same color family. I first thought that maybe the original brown had faded to the green color over the years, but since the handle is a different (hard) material from the rubbery material on the bag components, I doubt that both materials would have faded to a similar color. Also, since the bottom part of the bag wraps around such that some of it would not be exposed much at all, I would expect to see a more original color there, yet it is uniform green. From reading here and looking at various pictures, I thought that 562s were supposed to be entirely trimmed in a brown including the bag trim and handle.

Interestingly, when I look at parts sites, I see that the 562 has part numbers for both brown and green trim parts. (https://www.appliancefactoryparts.com/vacuumcleaners/kirby/562.html) Did this model come in both brown and green trim? Or did someone hack my 562 sometime during the 60 years before it came to live at my house?

Thanks for your insight. I’ve had a lot of fun reading this site so far.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

samh

Sam,

That bag guard you have on your 562 (it's an early version because of the darker copper trim pieces) was taken from a Dual Sanitronic 80 (1967-70). Luckily, the cord I see is still the factory original two-tone version.

The reason why you may be seeing certain parts for this machine in green is because in some cases those ones are the only ones currently available from Kirby.

~Ben

 

[KirbyCollector01]

That’s an odd shade of green. Check the inside of that trim ring. It could either be a very faded and discolored original trim, or an aftermarket. The D80 was no where near that shade of green.

 

[hoover300]

True, but they did make aftermarket trim kits in that shade of green. A lot rarer than the red, tan and blue ones.

 

[hoover300]

Just saw you said aftermarket lol. Nm

 

[samh]

Thanks, everyone for the info. As best as I can tell, the trim has not faded to that color. Someone colored it that way on purpose, I'm pretty sure. Also, this trim looks very different and much darker than the pictures that I've seen of the Dual 80. The Dual 80 looks like a lighter, olive green while this is a darker, more attractive IMHO forest green.

Are there any sorts of embossed part numbers or anything else that I can use to ID the trim more exactly? Also, would the aftermarket trim people have been allowed to use the Kirby logo on the bag topper like that? (Maybe no one cared much about trademarks back in the day?)

Thanks!

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I will say...............

those are beautiful hardwood floors!!!!!

 

[Miss Mercy]

It's the original trim. They had a tendency to fade to green or black.

 

[kirbyrama]

Bronze colored trim

It appears that the bronze color had seriously oxidized over a period of sixty years.It is similar to how copper turns green when oxidized.

 

[huskyvacs]

Rubber does not work that way. It can discolor, but not change color. That was made green from the start. Like others said, I agree that it is aftermarket trim - likely non-official from outside Kirby. Most probably meant for the Dual Sanitronic 80 which was the only green (olive green) Kirby ever made.

Here's another piece of dark green trim: https://tinyurl.com/2p8c6sfw