Kirby Vacuum

[scalebowler]

Found this old Kirby Tradition vacuum at a thrift store last week for 15 bucks with a mostly complete box of attachments. Saw it the day before I bought it but decided maybe I would pass on it but kept thinking about the thing all night and then all day at work so I rushed back to the store after I got off work and luckily it was still there. Didn't even bother to plug it in at the store since it was so cheap I thought I could make the money back parting it out if it ended up not working. Got it home and began cleaning it up. I did not do a perfect job cleaning it up since there are a few deep scratches on the light cover and the corners that I did not bother to sand out but I'm happy with how it turned out. Cool thing is I found a Kirby dealer just about 3 miles from my house and they checked it out for free plus sold me a new belt, light bulb and some bags for it. Must have spent 2 hours there that day because the guy was excited someone had in interest in the old ones and taught me just about everything I needed to know on how to use it as well as a bunch of history and showed me all the accessories they made for them (which I ended up buying most of when I bought the missing parts for the attachment box). Was pretty fun. Wouldn't mind getting another old one sometime to redo. Actually pretty easy projects and really good vacuum that they STILL make all the parts for!

[ajf5577]

It looks like it's from the 80's.
Kirbys are great fun because they are easy to date, and you can still get parts for just about any years model, even back to the 40's I have bought a couple of them. They clean up nicely and they're usually really cheap at sales.
Congratulations on picking that one up. It will give you many years of service.

[Eric]

I think there's a vacuum cleaner museum here in Missouri... My grandmother had one that looked like the Rocketeer jet pack.
That turned out nice.. looks like you used a lot of elbow grease on it. Years ago folks would hide that in a closet, now you could
take that, find a few vintage cleaning bottles and cans, frame a few old advertisements and display that in a corner. Great job!

[GreenMo]

That's a nice sucker!

[HowDueYouDue]

Interesting score. I may have to start giving them a second look at the flea markets

[scalebowler]

It looks like it's from the 80's.
Kirbys are great fun because they are easy to date, and you can still get parts for just about any years model, even back to the 40's I have bought a couple of them. They clean up nicely and they're usually really cheap at sales.
Congratulations on picking that one up. It will give you many years of service.

Thanks! Yeah I was really surprised when I went into the vacuum shop and they had just about every part I could need for it. I expected them to have discontinued selling parts for it or at least have to order something in but the guy had everything I could ever need for it.

[scalebowler]

I think there's a vacuum cleaner museum here in Missouri... My grandmother had one that looked like the Rocketeer jet pack.
That turned out nice.. looks like you used a lot of elbow grease on it. Years ago folks would hide that in a closet, now you could
take that, find a few vintage cleaning bottles and cans, frame a few old advertisements and display that in a corner. Great job!

Thanks! It took a little work to clean it all up. Mainly used Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish and the polishing wheel they sold for doing rims. Think it was called the "power ball" or something like that. Then gave it a coat of wax to hopefully keep it from oxidizing as quickly. Hardest part was re attaching the bag after I ran it through the washing machine. There is a spring sewn into the fabric in the bottom where all the dust comes in. Well the thing is REALLY strong to keep a tight seal and I had a heck of a time hooking it back on.

I like that idea of making a little display. Wouldn't mind having the poster they had in the vacuum shop that showed a timeline of the models from the first one to what ever one was the newest when they printed it.

[TheGarbageHunter]

Living the Dream

[Slider-Bob]

That really sucks!  LOL 

[cohammer]

That was back when you bought something it was meant to last not throw it away every year and get another .