Liam, If your anxious to get your 2C finished, go buy a rubber bungee strap and cut it and drill holes in it to mount on your 2C cleaning head, I have done this many times on various vintage vacuums. Actually my Kirby 1C has a bumper on it that I have made.
Liam, also you need to be patient on here when it comes to advice, many of us are older and have full time jobs and family lives, our collections are only secondary in life. I have many fellow collectors that would love to take the time to talk about vacuums, unfortunately that excitement has diminished. Your young and ambitious which is great, some of us are tired and burnt out. I'm not criticizing your just giving you a word of advice, us older collectors do enjoy our collections, but if you ask someone a question or request give them time to answer, if they don't answer just be patient, nothing worse than being busy and someone keeps calling and asking the same question. I have a very close friend, we talk almost everyday, if he needs advice or if he sees something for sale he will call me in the morning, if I don't. get back to him, he calls again, by the third time I get agitated, I have a full time job, he is retired,.I don't mean to snap at him, but I do because every time my phone rings I have to stop what I am doing to see who is calling me.
When I was in my early teens, there was a vacuum store that I use to go to every. chance I got, it was down the street from my Dad's business, on Saturday when I would go to my Dad's business, I would walk to the vacuum store. Well most of the times it was on a Saturday and the owner lived next door to his vacuum store. The store was supposed to be opened at 10:00 AM, well I would be pacing in front of his store and house, nose pressed on the store window, well if he wasn't out of the hose by 10:00 I would knock on the door of his house, I still can't believe I did that, but I did, I'm sure most of us did the same thing. Today, if I still had my vacuum store I don't think I could handle that. I had my share if future vacuum collectors come in, I used to let them look around, if I wasn't busy Id answer their questions, unfortunately I had a business partner who had no patience with collectors or vintage vacuums, all he seen was the dollar signs if you come in and just want to ask questions and looked around, if I wasn't there he would make them leave.
Just remember, be patient, call or get in touch with a collector once, they will get back to you if they can help, if someone tells you that they might have a part your looking for, be patient, we have bins of parts and unfortunately most of the time they are not easily accessible, give them time to look for them. Good luck with your collecting, I am looking forward to see how your 2C is coming out. One of these days I will post pictures of mine. Here is a picture of what I use for bumpers.
Charlie C.
