1911 A1 damaged slide

[Ifishsum]

I know this may be painful to see but this slide is from a '43 Colt GI 1911A1 that I rescued from it's abusive owner. It was beat with a hammer on both ends, but mostly on the rear. Luckily everything still fits so it's primarily cosmetic damage, but is this fixable? Can the pushed up lip be peened back into shape to some degree? Or is it better to file it down? Should I leave it alone if the pistol otherwise functions? Is it hard to find a correct replacement slide?

 

[1911Tuner]

Ouch.

I think I'd try to dress it with a smooth mill file and touch it up with cold blue. You're just likely to make it look worse tryin' to beat the lumps out with a hammer.

 

[nicholst55]

I would just cinsider those 'character marks,' and leave it as-is. But that's just me.

 

[Jolly Rogers]

Dang...Where is the horse whip when you need it?
Joe

 

[Bob Rodgers]

I think I'd try to dress it with a smooth mill file and touch it up with cold blue. You're just likely to make it look worse tryin' to beat the lumps out with a hammer.

'Course you could always try tapping them out on the previous owner's head.

Agree. Looks like a good place to try out your filing skills. We routinely bevel those edges anyway. Finish up with 320 grit paper.

 

[1911Tuner]

'Course you could always try tapping them out on the previous owner's head

heh...That's a bit extreme, but maybe an 8-ounce hammer to beat on his fingers would be appropriate.

 

[Ifishsum]

These are more like "lack-of-character" marks I'm worried that if I took it out in public someone will think I did it and pistol-whip me...

Looks like a good place to try out your filing skills. We routinely bevel those edges anyway. Finish up with 320 grit paper.

I did exactly that and it looks a lot better. The cold blue doesn't match up perfectly with the parkerizing but it sure looks better than it did, and the finish was hammered off the back anyway. If I get real serious I'll just re-park the whole slide.

 

[BEARMAN]

What was the reason for the pounding on both ends of the slide?

 

[brigadier]

Now that you have it filed down, you can smoothen it out with a sand pad.
If you want your finish back, use cold bluing and then spray some Color Palace flat black primer on it ($0.98 at Wal Mart) and oven bake it at 300f for 3 hours.

 

[Ifishsum]

What was the reason for the pounding on both ends of the slide?

Some years ago (15-20?) my father-in-law tried to accurize the pistol himself by installing a new National Match barrel and undersized bushing - but he only had a limited knowledge of fitting based on his military days (he was a competitive shooter). From his description and the damage, apparently he hit the rear with a hammer because it would not go fully into battery, then it got stuck and he hit the front to open it back up. He'd take the bushing down a little more and repeated that a few times. I guess he gave up on it but he still thought that all it needed was to be shot in with some cutting oil to mate the barrel and bushing - he just could not get it into battery enough to fire a round, which I'm thinking is a very good thing.

I'm new to 1911s myself but I consider myself somewhat of an amateur gunsmith (I know, I know - but I've never ruined anything that wasn't ruined to begin with) and found that most of the problem was with the barrel legs and link (plus the firing pin stop was broken under the ejector from the hammering). He lost the original parts, the grips and magazines went missing as well and he dinged the crown on that new barrel, so it's a real sad case that I don't mind learning on - if all else fails I have a Colt frame to build on, but I actually feel like I'm pretty close to making it run as it should. I fired it last week but ran into extraction problems.