Kirby Classic III -- All Finished!!!

[eurekastar]

Well almost . . . I had the day off, so I spent the day disassembling the vacuum, thoroughly washing everything, and polishing the castings. I'll reassemble everything tomorrow and post a photo.

I ended up using the original handle fork. I thought I would be clever and harvest one from a Heritage series vacuum so the cord winder would be on the left, opposite the bag. I cleaned and polished the handle and got ready to assemble it when I discovered that the screw hole for the handle back is in a different place. I thought about ordering a handle back for a Legend II since it's the same color, but I really don't want to wait for it! So I'll just keep it all original.

The fan was a *&^%#%@&@* to get off! But nothing that a vice gripe and a little muscle can't handle! The rug plate needs a new gasket, so that's on order. I'll just use the rug plate from my Tradition until the new gasket arrives.

 

[eurekastar]

And for comparison . . .

This is what it looked like when I got it. It had a Classic Omega handle on it. The bag had a tear, the fan case gasket was missing, and the old aluminum fan was all busted up. No wonder it wasn't picking up anything!

 

[eurekastar]

Bonus

When I unzipped the scraper pocket, I found these things -- an old bottle of Kirby Odorific and a couple of plastic things that look like they are stuffed with cotton. I'm guessing that you'd impregnate those little things with Odorific and put them in the pocket.

 

[eurekastar]

By the way

The old bag is actually in decent shape, except for the tear. Should I fix the tear BEFORE laundering the bag?

 

[kirbykid63]

Nice buffing

I ordered some green and brown buffing compound from my kirby dealer to use with my 1hp sears bench buffer. I was impressed with the way my G5 came out it looks like new.

 

[eurekastar]

With Satellite Service . . .

I decided to go ahead and assemble the belt lifter and put it on the nozzle. This belt lifter assembles in a completely different way than the Heritage and G series belt lifters. And like a dork, I put the hook on upside down and then assembled everything to the nozzle before I realized I had done it wrong. Luckily the adhesive on the label hadn't cured, so I was able to peel it off without messing it up. There are two retaining clips, one on the outside under the label, and the other one on the underside.

 

[eurekastar]

Oops!

That should have said NO satellite service. Thankfully, a repair tech is coming in the morning . . . I hope!

 

[eurekastar]

And here she is . . .

all done! I ended up doing more polishing this morning on the Sani-Emtor. It was late last night when I polished it, so I wasn't paying attention to detail.

 

[eurekastar]

Each machine I've rebuilt has been a learning experience. The one thing I can't quite figure out is how to install this little clip on the headlight hinge pin. It puts tension on the headlight assembly so it stays up. I got frustrated and quite fooling with it. This machine has a new bag, nozzle bumper, headlight trim, handle, handle label, four row brush roll, front and rear bearings, motor brushes, motor brush caps, impeller (fan), Sani-Emptor gasket, and fan case gasket. I had to order a new gasket for the rug plate too. But it's not here yet. So for now, this machine is borrowing the rug plate from my Kirby Tradition.

 

[eurekastar]

Results of its first "test-drive" around the Family Room.

 

[electroluxkirby]

She sure is purdy!

 

[compactelectra]

Those Are Beautiful Machines

One of my all time favorites. Bought mine new in '76 and sent it back to the factory for a rebuild in the around 1997. About time for another beauty treatment. You have inspired me.

 

[kloveland]

Cool

Very nice job. Looks wonderful. Nothing really beats a Kirby

 

[eurekastar]

Sisters

The Classic III with her younger sister, Tradition.

 

[luxg]

Beautiful job Bill, Looks like they have been to the factory for a rebuild!

 

[luxg]

Beautiful job Bill!! Looks like they have been to Kirby for a complete rebuild!

 

[kirbykid63]

I am buffing to

I am working on my buffing technique and hope to show off some of my work soon.

Richard

 

[eurekastar]

Richard

One thing I'm doing is using 4" wheels in addition to the larger 6" wheels. It's easier to get into some places with the smaller wheel. The G series is also good to learn out because they are fairly straightforward don't have all the nooks and crannies that the older machines have.

 

[kirbykid63]

Thanks Vernon

I appreciate all your tips since I get many kirby's in Tucson I can get lot of practice with my Craftsman bench buffer.On utube there is someone using a ryobi angle grinder with polishing wheels also buffing metal. The polishing kit is $10.00 at home depot wouldn't mind giving this a shot for the hard to buff areas.

Richard Groski

 

[eurekastar]

Polishing a Kirby

I made a lot of mistakes learning to polish and still have a lot to learn. For instance, I had to learn that there is no substitute for the polish that Kirby sells to its distributors. Second, one my of early mistakes was not being careful about never mixing different compounds on the same wheel. I think that's especially true for the color finish. It makes complete sense to me now, but it didn't at first. Another thing I'm learning is to do the color finish one day and then inspecting it the next day. I think sometimes I've worked so long on something that I get a little "blind" to what it needs to look like. By looking at it the next day, I can easily see areas that need work. I've also used polishing wheels and bits for my drill, but the results haven't very good. So I will still resort the good old fashioned steel wool during the cutting polish in order to get to some awkward spots. A friend also shared a technique of using sand paper to sand out heavy scratches before going to the polishing wheel. I haven't done it yet, but he begins with a coarse grit, then wet sands with successively finer grits, until he ends up with a very fine grit. Then he takes it the wheel. But he warns about not sanding too much that the metal is compromised.

 

[eurekastar]

It's Official!

I think I really like the shakeout bag! Why? Well, I get this odd thrill out of examining the debris! Is that wrong? I think that's why I like my Compact/Tristar vacuums. Like a Kirby, the engineering is simple and straightforward AND they both allow you to easily examine what you just vacuumed. This is from a whirl around three rooms since using the Classic III for the first time yesterday. I really like this vacuum! DISCLAIMER: This photo is not a commentary on the literary section of USA Today.

 

[eurekastar]

More Results

I came home today at lunch and vacuumed with the Kirby Classic III. This the result of just three rooms after NOT vacuuming for two days with two dogs and four teenagers and their friends going in and out of the house. (I have no hair that contributed to that pile.)

 

[sanimatic]

Me too

This and a couple other recent Classic III threads have enthused me to get mine out and use it again as well and I agree about the shake out bag. For some reason I recalled that emptying it spewed a cloud of dust all over the room, but if you shake it first with the Sani Pocket and then gently open the emptor, there is no cloud.

 

[eurekastar]

Emptying the Bag

I don't have an instruction manual for the Classic III, but my Tradition manual says to lower the nozzle all the down to the last notch, close the suction relief vent on the nozzle, unhook the bag, turn the vacuum on briefly to inflate the bag, then turn it off. As the bag deflates, shake it vigorously from the top. That loosens dust and debris, causing it to fall into the Sani-Emtor. It works well too.

 

[sanimatic]

CIII manual

What you just described sounds very familiar. I don't have the CIII manual but it's posted just a few threads below this one on:

Thread Number: 9498
Kirby Classic III Model 2 CB