You know its a good day when...

[washernoob]

you get 4 free kirby vacuums!!

Now their current condition reflect the price, but still a fun haul none the less!

These kirbys came from a gentleman who has some "source" (a rainbow dealer i believe) gives him dyson and kirbys like non other each week. Currently he had 6 dysons in his garage, and about 12 kirbys. He said he has 6 more kirbys in his basement. On average he gets 6 kirbys in a week he says. And he gets so backed up that he trashes the older or junk ones. But now that we know each other, he says I am more than welcome to take everything that he doesnt have a use for!

____
1979 Classic III in original and quite good condition. Just badly tarnished and very dirty

1982 Heritage turbo, scratched and tarnished

Circa 1985 -2- Heritage IIs. One in bad tarnished and corroded condition, other one quite nice.

Also got a box with a very rare kirby turbo tool and some weird carpet freshener!

 

[washernoob]

The nice heritage II

Im going to keep this one, and the heritage turbo attachments. and the other 3 are going to a friend who is a die hard kirby nut.

After I strip them down and completely rebuild them of course!

 

[washernoob]

Attachments.

Some people swear that this turbo tool is the best ever made!

That little silver can is the kirby carpet freshener.

 

[rp2813]

I'm not familiar with the Turbo Tool. What does it do, besides suck big time?

We have a G-4. Maybe the Turbo Tool isn't included with the standard attachment package for our model.

 

[washernoob]

Turbo tool

Its an air driven brush roll hand tool. It was replaced in the late 80s, I think, by the zip brush, which is similar, but its a disk that spins with brushes, rather than a tube roller brush.

Here is a zip brush-
http://www.familyvac.com/K-zipbrush.jpg

PIcture attached is the nozzle of the classic III which I found out is actually a 1976 model. I put one coat of mothers aluminum polish on. Wow worlds of a difference!

http://www.familyvac.com/K-zipbrush.jpg

 

[washernoob]

Housing

Here is the housing. I polished the light cap, and wanted to do a side by side shot of what it looked like before!

Lots of elbow grease ahead!

 

[qsd-dan]

WOW!!

It's a damn shame to hear Kirbys being thrown in the trash because of their age. They'll certainly outlast anything made today and probably outperform a good percentage of most new vacuums.

 

[washernoob]

It sure is a shame. They are great vacuums. And fun looking for sure. I love my D80 and will never part with it!

The man I got these from had 2 sentria vacuums. kirbys newest models. And they looked terrible. Hardly 3 years old and the previous owners just trashed them. Ive seen 50 year old kirbys that look 10x as good. Its sad.

 

[austinado16]

Nice haul!

Those will clean up nicely!

If you haven't tried "Simichrome" metal polish, you might like it as much, or more than the Mother's.

I'm a big fan of the Royals and still use the one I purchased new back in the late 80's.

Funny side note on quality vacuums: Our daughter is in gymnastics. The facility she trains at is probably about 20,000 square feet, all carpeted, and usually coated in a heavy layer of white chalk. Each Oct. the gym hosts an in-house meet and we parents are asked to volunteer our time to set the gym up for the competition. This includes vacuuming the entire facility. About 2 years ago I was helping and other parents were running around trying to vacuum the facility with the myriad of wiz-bang vacuums the gym had in the janatorial closet. All the typical Eureka/Hoover/Etc. brands, and even a Dyson. They were all broken, all of them screamed like banchees when in use. The Dyson's internals looked like it'd been used to groom wet, long haired dogs.

Needless to say, I came home and grabbed my 6amp model 886 Royal upright and vacuumed the entire gym. Everybody laughed at the "antique vacuum cleaner"........but they weren't laughing when they saw what a great job it was doing.

Ultimately, the gym owner asked me to find her 2 Royal uprights, which I did....so now a pair of used 10amp Royal Commercials clean the entire place.

 

[mixfinder]

You Go Noobs

It is a delight to watch your unabashed joy as a collector and your exuberance in sharing. I hope I never grow so old or calloused that I forget the elation I felt each time I scored another find and brought them home to play with. You can make a much more enlightend approach in deciding which brands to buy new after you've had experience with them all.

 

[washernoob]

Thanks!

. It sure is fun when days turn out like this! Often a project and a challenge with some of them. And I enjoy it.

A weird note on the classic III, the fan case appears to be welded to the machine. :S hope the fan doesn't break! It wont be coming out any time soon!

 

[washernoob]

Thanks!

. It sure is fun when days turn out like this! Often a project and a challenge with some of them. And I enjoy it.

A weird note on the classic III, the fan case appears to be welded to the machine. :S hope the fan doesn't break! It wont be coming out any time soon!

 

[countryguy]

Anyone else have a problem with this thread only when after viewing, the Spin button does not come on?

Gary

 

[countryguy]

*Update* I viewed this thread at home last night and again this morning and the Spin button did not come on. However after I posted the previous message, it seems to have fixed the problem and the Spin is now on - a minor glitch?

Gary

 

[washernoob]

Almost done with one!

The classic three is turing out 100X better than I ever thought possible. It aint perfect, but considering the amount of oxidation and tarnish it had, its far better than I ever expected.

The housing and nozzle are scratch free, and the bumper looks WAY better in person. Its clean and great looking.

WIth new stickers, this machine is going to be gorgeous!

Will be washing bag and doing emptor tomorrow.

Found 37 cents in the handle too!

 

[washernoob]

Better pic of the housing.

The glare was bad so the pictures dont show its true beauty.

I did break off a little prong that holds on the tail of the headlight cap, so im going to have to tape it down for now, until its replaced.

 

[washernoob]

Heritage two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spent a good 3 hours on this gorgeous machine. This is definitely the one Im keeping!

WOW! It looks almost new. Besides a few "liver spots" that can be taken out with maybe some OOO steel wool.

Everything is in exceptional condition. The wheels, the metal, the plastic, the brush roll, the bumpers. Oh its so nice!

The plastic piece on the front is a holder for their kirby split second hand vacuum.

 

[washernoob]

Nozzle

Talk about a total transformation!

 

[washernoob]

Side

 

[washernoob]

rear

Id say this is definitely my prime restoration.

 

[washernoob]

Underside

The underside.

 

[washernoob]

Running!

I forgot how nice these sound, and how powerful they are! This was my first kirby model! (Well mine was a Heritage 2 legend, same thing though) I am so happy to have another. One of my favorite kirbys.

 

[qsd-dan]

That sure turned out nice! I think you inspired me to give my G5 a little lovin.

 

[autowasherfreak]

WOW!!!!!

Great restoration job! My Legend II has liver spots and needs a good polishing, other than that one of the best uprights I've ever owned. The darn thing will probably out live me, LOL.

 

[gansky1]

That really did clean up nice, Brandon. I think those are one of my all-time favorite Kirbys to use.

This the Commercial Hoover I brought home today that I was telling you about. It's been used a little but the tools are just like new.

 

[washernoob]

Wow greg! What a find! Id say thats one great price too. Considering they are like $250 or something new!

I have a swingette and a portapower. I use them both literally on a daily basis. These are great vacuums. The nice thing about the commercial ones is they are more rugged.