Thread Number: 24156
An Early "Kirby Birthday Present" to Myself! |
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Post# 270154   3/3/2014 at 21:32 (3,705 days old) by Electrolux137 (Los Angeles)   |   | |
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. I contacted Dustin to ask about the Kirby 517 he had advertised for sale here. He offered the machine to me very reasonably -- "an offer I couldn't refuse!" So I agreed to the sale and paid via PayPal. The machine arrived today. Look at the photos below -- I want y'all to see what an expert packing job looks like. If this had been an eBay transaction I would have given him a 4-star rave review! Overall, it's in beautiful shape. A huge plus is the original cord in perfect condition. When I got the machine I could tell right away that the bag that's on it is bojack -- it's much thinner in weight than a genuine Kirby bag. However, I just happen to have (ONE) model-appropriate gray Kirby bag. The 517 had a plain gray bag, not the bag with the silver speckling in the fabric. I've held on to this bag for a very long time, and now I have the machine to put it on. I consider this an early birthday present that I'm quite thrilled with! |
Post# 270155 , Reply# 1   3/3/2014 at 21:57 (3,705 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)   |   | |
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Post# 270160 , Reply# 2   3/3/2014 at 22:38 (3,705 days old) by KirbyClassicIII (Milwaukie, Oregon)   |   | |
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Post# 270163 , Reply# 3   3/3/2014 at 22:49 (3,705 days old) by dustin (Jackson, MI)   |   | |
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Post# 270167 , Reply# 4   3/3/2014 at 23:36 (3,705 days old) by Electrolux137 (Los Angeles)   |   | |
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. Ben, it's an original gray cord. The gray color of those cords varied fairly widely. I've seen them very a very dark slate-gray like the one I just got from Dustin and have also seen them much lighter with a silvery hue -- an almost metallic look. See four specimens in the photo below that I gathered from my Mac. I'm sure I could have found many more examples if I had looked further, but I'm not going to spend all night on this. Those Belden plugs are molded onto the cords at the time of manufacturing; there's no way to remove them intact and put them onto different cords. The same thing applied to the color of the 516~561 bags btw. Some were very dark charcoal gray, some a more silvery color, some even had a blueish cast to them. Don't forget; I am old enough to have seen many 500-series Kirbys when they were new! |
Post# 270168 , Reply# 5   3/3/2014 at 23:40 (3,705 days old) by KirbyClassicIII (Milwaukie, Oregon)   |   | |
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Post# 270369 , Reply# 7   3/5/2014 at 15:57 (3,704 days old) by kirbyrama (Pennsylvania)   |   | |
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Speaking of the original cords for these models ; most of the ones I have seen appear to be an olive-grayish sort of color. |
Post# 272061 , Reply# 8   3/16/2014 at 01:59 (3,693 days old) by KirbyClassicIII (Milwaukie, Oregon)   |   | |
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Charles,
I do in fact see that Kirby still made the gray cord (#192059) with the red plugs on it post-1966, since I see the male plug on the second cord in the second picture (in reply #4) has the angular middle part that makes it look like the Classic III cord only with a gray cord body. If one of those #192059 cords existed with the 1983-later male plug end (all square-cut, no curves), that would be quite rare. Too bad the original 562 cord (cream body/sirocco ends) didn't make the transition. ~Ben |
Post# 272727 , Reply# 9   3/20/2014 at 17:13 (3,689 days old) by vacuser (milford,ohio)   |   | |
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