Repair and Cleaning of Kirby 515 Corduroy Bag

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Your welcome

Quin,

You are very welcome, I'm glad your happy with the way it turned out. Now it looks like a 515 should look. One thing you should change are the back wheels they came from the factory with the flat side on the front, and the hub side in the back, small detail....pictured.

Jim

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Aha!

Of course! In the back of my head something still felt off (aside from the tawny brown power cord!) My OCD must've gotten the best of me here. Thanks for pointing that out, or I would've completely forgotten!
 
Reflective Personality

I stayed up till 1 AM last night, hunkered over the bench polisher, getting the 515 it's first machine-polish most likely since the rebuild in 91. I love disassembling Kirbys compared to other things, since you pretty much only need one screwdriver to get the whole job done! Put it under the buffing wheels with some white and red rouge, and just look at that shine! It was already pretty nice when I got it, but the rouge jumped it over the line between polished and mirror! This was actually my first time using rouge for a larger project, and I absolutely love it!

Also, yes, the wheel screws are mushroom philips-heads. I have yet to find a set of 4 Round slotheads for them. Also, Jim, if you have the time, would you be able to send a nice, clear image of the model plate on the underside of your 515? At some point I plan to refabricate the original model badge on mine, which was snipped of after the rebuild, and replaced with the half fallen off rebuild sticker it has now, however I've never atually been able to find a good reference image of the badge. Thank you very much for your time!

(First two images are shortly after I got it, and hand polished it with Mother's.
Third and onward are today, after polishing with rouge.)

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