to FRED re Spa Makeover and to FR BRUCE re Rebuilds
Fred, couldn't you just remove all the trim from the machine and send it to Cleveland, then replace it when you get it back? Or, maybe if you sent it with instructions in really big, bold type, to replace the original trim after polishing you'd get it back with the original trim replaced?! Either way, I certainly would not send them the original bag or cord!
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Then to Fr. Bruce, when you saw rebuilt Kirbys, especially the really early ones, were they done up in red and gray? I ask this because I have often wondered if maybe my Aunt's Kirby wasn't an earlier model that had been rebuilt and maybe even had a more modern handle put on it.
I say this because some details of what I remember about it point to a very early machine, such as the C2. I could 'swear' that the rear of the machine had slots on the sides of the motor housing for ventilation (not on the top of the axle like the later 500 series), and that the rear axle curved deeply concave (downwardly) -- again, like the C2 axle instead of convex (outwardly) the way the early 500 series did to some degree and then more dramatically with the later 500 series. See photo of a C2 to see what I mean.
On the other hand, the reason I have also thought it may have been a 514 or 515 is because I clearly recall it had a speckled bag with the long pointy logo on it, and a red handle and bumper trim. But again, these could have been utilized on a rebuilt machine.
I do also recall that it had gray attachments, a gray woven hose, and had a gray cord with the large round motor (female) plug. It also SEEMS that it had the ribbed long metal section of handle -- whenever I think of her Kirby I picture it with that handle, but since the ribbed section did not come out until the 517 or 518, that may just be faulty memory on my part.
Part of the difficulty in remembering all the details with exact precision is that the last time I would have seen it would have been, at the latest, 1962; and we only lived near our Aunt for about three years -- we moved to that part of Virginia in the summer of 1958 and moved away in the fall of 1962.
And although we did live close to her and I was over there a lot, I only remember seeing her Kirby a handful of times. It wasn't like she was running it every time we went over there -- and a good thing, because when she WAS using it I wouldn't even go inside the house! I'd stay outside on the front porch, watching her use it from the safety of the other side of the screen door!
When she would babysit me and want to keep me outside and out of her hair, she would get the Kirby out of the front closet and set on the front "stoop" where I would keep a safe but fascinated distance from it!!
My uncle was kind of a mean man in a way, or I should say, had a prankster streak in him, and my Mom has told me he used to chase me around the house with the Kirby -- running after me with it saying he was going to sweep me up in it! Of course that did a lot to allay my fear of it!!! Funny thing is, I do not remember that at all. Guess I blocked it out!!!
"Ah, sweet memories......."
and its not like Kirbys (as much as I love them) are the friendliest looking machines lol
