Question regarding 1911 mods.

[MAURICE]

Hi all,
I am wanting to switch the hammer and grip safety on my Series 80 Colt to a Commander hammer and a beavertail grip safety.

I may be wrong, but it is my understanding that drop in parts will work for this, but with the new hammer will I also need a new sear and hammer strut to go with it, or will the stock parts work? Im looking at the parts here.

Thanks for the help,
Maurice

 

[Majic]

The old strut wil be fine. You can use the old sear, but you may need some 'smithing to get a good trigger. If you don't want to go thru that routine then a matched set of hammer and sear should have been bought.
Depending on what style of grip safety you bought and how your pistol is configured you may have to grind the frame to install the grip safety. You can buy a jig that will help with this grinding.

 

[MAURICE]

Ah yes. Forgot about the grip safety link. Found a CMC drop in for a reasonable price. Havent bought anything yet, as I wanted to be sure of it all before I plunk down any cash.

Thanks for the reply.
Maurice

 

[Ship A'Hoy]

I went the "drop-in" route myself and have to say I was very disappointed. They do drop in, but the fit is not that great. In fact even though I bought name brand parts the fit was worse than what I started with. There are manufacturing tolerances in every piece of every gun and when you assemble different parts from different or even the same manufacturers, those tolerances stack up, leading to poorly fit parts. A good gunsmith reduces those tolerances and each seperate part is fitted together for each individual gun. So what did I do after the "drop-in" experiment? I paid a gunsmith to teach me how to fit the parts on a 1911. Now I'm really dangerous cause I almost think I know something about the 1911.

 

[45auto]

I don't believe CMC makes a "drop in" grip safety, but I could be wrong.

You may want to confirm that before you buy it.

 

[MAURICE]

Yes, My mistake. Was from another maker.