Hello! I'm pretty new to the vacuum collection hobby but I thought you guys might like to see my two Kirby vacuums that I've cleaned up.
The first one is a Kirby Tradition that I found at a thrift store for 15 bucks that came with a mostly complete case of attachments. Did an alright job at polishing it up as best as I could, washed the bag, cleaned the fill tube and blew out the dust from the motor. Then took it to the Kirby shop here in town to get a new light bulb, belt, and some disposible bags. While I was there the owner of the shop gave it a free inspection and shared some tips and tricks on how to polish them up better plus he taught me quite a bit about the history, how to do adjustmnets and during the inspection explained to me exactly what he was doing and even taught me how to properly use it. I ended up going back a few days later to see if he had some of the accessories I was missing (like the hose and some extensions) and he had everything I needed. Even ended up coming home with a Rug Renovator and a Zip brush. All in all there are a few things I could have done better in terms of polishing it but I think I did pretty good for my first attempt.
The next vacuum I got is a Kirby Classic III. Found this gem while browsing craigslist and found an ad for a Kirby vacuum for 50 bucks which included some attachments and the handi butler. When I got it home I found that it had just about every attachment I could think of plus none of them had been used. I even found an unused bottle of Kirby Instant Suds from the 1970's and still sealed bottle of Odoriffic along with a letter in an envelope from the dealer who sold the original owner the Kirby with a little cloth bag that says Kirby Classic silk screened on it. This time I learned from my tradition and took the owner of the Kirby shops advice and used some 000 steel wool and some polishing compound and disassembled and hand polished the entire unit. After I had polished and waxed it I took it to the Kirby shop again to have it looked over and to see how I did at doing an inspection on a Kirby on my own. After some time looking it over and replacing the head lamp bulb and the o ring on the emptor we fired it up and tried it out. Had a loose wire on the head light which we fixed and then she ran perfectly. I think the Classic has to be my favorite of the two mainly because I love the red trim on it. Makes it look like a car from the 50's or a space ship and the other thing I love is the sound of that aluminum fan.
Think I've gotten the addiction now since I'm all ready thinking about the next one I want to redo. Eventually I would love to find a Kirby Dual Sanitronic 50 to restore but in the mean time I think these two will serve me well. Hope you guys enjoy the pictures. Had a blast redoing these two
The first one is a Kirby Tradition that I found at a thrift store for 15 bucks that came with a mostly complete case of attachments. Did an alright job at polishing it up as best as I could, washed the bag, cleaned the fill tube and blew out the dust from the motor. Then took it to the Kirby shop here in town to get a new light bulb, belt, and some disposible bags. While I was there the owner of the shop gave it a free inspection and shared some tips and tricks on how to polish them up better plus he taught me quite a bit about the history, how to do adjustmnets and during the inspection explained to me exactly what he was doing and even taught me how to properly use it. I ended up going back a few days later to see if he had some of the accessories I was missing (like the hose and some extensions) and he had everything I needed. Even ended up coming home with a Rug Renovator and a Zip brush. All in all there are a few things I could have done better in terms of polishing it but I think I did pretty good for my first attempt.
The next vacuum I got is a Kirby Classic III. Found this gem while browsing craigslist and found an ad for a Kirby vacuum for 50 bucks which included some attachments and the handi butler. When I got it home I found that it had just about every attachment I could think of plus none of them had been used. I even found an unused bottle of Kirby Instant Suds from the 1970's and still sealed bottle of Odoriffic along with a letter in an envelope from the dealer who sold the original owner the Kirby with a little cloth bag that says Kirby Classic silk screened on it. This time I learned from my tradition and took the owner of the Kirby shops advice and used some 000 steel wool and some polishing compound and disassembled and hand polished the entire unit. After I had polished and waxed it I took it to the Kirby shop again to have it looked over and to see how I did at doing an inspection on a Kirby on my own. After some time looking it over and replacing the head lamp bulb and the o ring on the emptor we fired it up and tried it out. Had a loose wire on the head light which we fixed and then she ran perfectly. I think the Classic has to be my favorite of the two mainly because I love the red trim on it. Makes it look like a car from the 50's or a space ship and the other thing I love is the sound of that aluminum fan.
Think I've gotten the addiction now since I'm all ready thinking about the next one I want to redo. Eventually I would love to find a Kirby Dual Sanitronic 50 to restore but in the mean time I think these two will serve me well. Hope you guys enjoy the pictures. Had a blast redoing these two
