A "diamond" in the DEEEEP rough- My next vacuum project

[washernoob]

My good friend gave me this Kirby Diamond ultimate G to clean up.

This is hands down the most severe tarnish work I have ever seen. My OOOO grade steel wool just isn't strong enough to remove all the tarnish.

It also has a quite large, what my mom suspects to be, blood stain in the bag. Hopefully her hospital grade stain remove will work.

Keep in mind this vacuum is approaching FOUR !!4!! Years old.

 

[washernoob]

Side

Here is a profile view of the vacuum.

 

[washernoob]

Here is the nozzle.

I spent a good 10 minutes trying to polish this up with the #0000 steel wool and some mothers. It cleaned most of it up, but its still visibly bad. Its also to the point of its starting to pit the metal.

 

[washernoob]

The kirby came from a guy who takes in the kirby and dyson trades from a rainbow dealer. (and he gets a TON!)

Same guy who gave me those 4 kirbys a few weeks back.

The only reason my friend bought this is because it ran so perfectly well and was in such good internal shape.

Its all cosmetic!

 

[autowasherfreak]

My LII and Tradition aren't even that bad. I hope you can get her all shiny and new again.

 

[whirlcool]

What did the owners of that Kirby do? Store it out in the garage or carport? It looks really weathered!

 

[washernoob]

No idea

Not sure but that is probably what they did. Its a shame. What a great vacuum.

The brush roll is that new style and is very stiff! This puppy cleans great!

 

[tlee618]

Wow Brandon, you have your work cut out for you. That one is going to take a buffing wheel for sure.

 

[dustin92]

I have seen an Ultimate G that was abused and eventually burned in a house fire and after all that, it didnt look THAT bad!(although it looked more like a G4 because the bag and trim had been blackened by soot, I am sure it would have still ran fine) it was only about 2 years old at that time (we bought ours about 2 weeks after this one,) (it belonged to our neighbors) and even now almost 8 years later ours doesnt look as bad as theirs did before the fire. Unfortunately, they didnt know about the fire rebuild plan and threw it out. Some people should not be allowed to own a quality vacuum!

 

[washernoob]

Well my friend is going to give me a kirby handy butler. So I will use it with the D80 and polish out this one. Not as good as a real bench polisher, but a bit safer, and less expensive!

 

[washernoob]

Well after some great effort of polishing I think I did alright on the motor top and headlight cap.

This is just mothers polish and OOOO steel wool. THe nozzle is the only real hard part left to really clean.

 

[washernoob]

And here is a closer view of the side.

It really did come out alright! Its not perfect though.

 

[tlee618]

From what you started with Brandon I would say that you have done great! Keep us posted.

 

[gansky1]

Wow - that's a transformation! Lots of work though, are your arms sore today?

 

[washernoob]

Thanks Terry!

And, Greg, yes... my arms have been killing me since last night! lol. Next time I will be using something that will cut away that grime a bit easier.

It was like using a fork to cut steak with the OOOO steel wool!

 

[washernoob]

Well I have done as much as i possibly can with the tools I have at hand.

Aka.... ITS DONE!

Its far from perfection, but its a total transformation from before. It doesn't look bad at all anymore. Just looks.... 4-5 years used. The opposite bag side of the nozzle was so bad, i could not possibly take out all the crud. But I did happen to get most of it out. The pitting is still visible up close but it is much less visible than before.

Id say this was a job well done. It was a lot of painstaking HAND work. No machines used here.

Now about that blood stain in the bag.... thats the very last cosmetic thing I will deal with. But thats not a big issue.

 

[washernoob]

Closer up.

The above pic made the nozzle look like crap!

Below you can still see the deep tarnish that I just couldn't get out.

 

[washernoob]

Front.

 

[washernoob]

Bag side.

 

[washernoob]

Here is a detail of the switch in case you ever wondered what it looked like up close.

 

[qsd-dan]

Certainly turned out very nice, considering it's former condition. I'd say it's still VERY much presentable!