Michael Tinker Pearce
Member
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2016
- Messages
- 1,579
A good few years back a friend gave me a 1911a1. He had assembled it a decade before and sent it off to get some sort of Teflon coating that was all the rage at the time. By the time it was returned to him he was into Glocks, and it had been sitting idle for years. I was delighted; I like 1911s and didn't have one at the time. It's a bit of a Frankengun; the slide is WW2 Vintage and the frame has no identifying marks, so it's provenance is unknown. Aside from a beavertail grip safety, Pachmayr mainspring housing and grips and extended trigger it was all GI. The color... not good. But hey, it was a gift, and it shot great and was reliable. The trigger pull is genuinely good; not heavy, with a crisp break and short, positive reset. OK, the GI sights suck and the color isn't my favorite, but it was a gift from a good friend and it works well. I did a couple of small modifications; I glued a piece of eraser to the front of the grip frame to form a finger-groove when the Pachmayrs were stretched over it, and a buddy gave me a stainless flat mainspring housing, but that was about the limit. Then my friend passed on, and I felt like I shouldn't change it further.
Then last week I'd wrapped up my work for the day and decided to stipple the mainspring housing to improve the grip. That came out good, but it was... sparkly. I dropped it some Ferric Chloride for about thirty minutes, which gave it a nice matte gray finish. Looks OK and does what it's supposed to. I was talking to Linda, who had noticed I don't shoot the 1911 much, and I said I didn't want to change it because I got it from my now-deceased friend. She pointed out, correctly, that he would have been fascinated to see what I would do with it, and would have thought it was cool. Fair enough. I went to work.
I stripped the green from the the slide, except for the recoil-spring tube, then flattened the top. Then I noticed the sides weren't actually flat; wartime production; it needed to be functional, not pretty. I went to work and flattened the sides of the slide. I stripped the rear sight, enlarging and squaring the aperture, then reinstalled it. Ever since I shot IPSC back in the prehistoric era I've liked a narrow front sight, and in recent years I've developed a preference for brass front sights, so I installed a narrow brass front sight. I sanded all of the exposed metal to 240 grit, then finished the slide with Mark Lee Instant Rust Blue.
The picture shows the flat-top slide, the new/modified sights and the stippled mainspring housing.
I don't mind the green so much now that it's only on the lower parts of the gun, and I like the flat-top slide.
There's a bit of color to the slide. I suppose I could have done a few more cycles of rust blue but honestly I don't mind it.
I also beveled the magazine well. It's not much, but it gives a little margin for error on fast magazine changes.
So nothing earth-shaking or radical; just a few simple cosmetic and functional modifications. I'll be heading for the range tomorrow morning and see how it all works out.
Then last week I'd wrapped up my work for the day and decided to stipple the mainspring housing to improve the grip. That came out good, but it was... sparkly. I dropped it some Ferric Chloride for about thirty minutes, which gave it a nice matte gray finish. Looks OK and does what it's supposed to. I was talking to Linda, who had noticed I don't shoot the 1911 much, and I said I didn't want to change it because I got it from my now-deceased friend. She pointed out, correctly, that he would have been fascinated to see what I would do with it, and would have thought it was cool. Fair enough. I went to work.
I stripped the green from the the slide, except for the recoil-spring tube, then flattened the top. Then I noticed the sides weren't actually flat; wartime production; it needed to be functional, not pretty. I went to work and flattened the sides of the slide. I stripped the rear sight, enlarging and squaring the aperture, then reinstalled it. Ever since I shot IPSC back in the prehistoric era I've liked a narrow front sight, and in recent years I've developed a preference for brass front sights, so I installed a narrow brass front sight. I sanded all of the exposed metal to 240 grit, then finished the slide with Mark Lee Instant Rust Blue.
The picture shows the flat-top slide, the new/modified sights and the stippled mainspring housing.
I don't mind the green so much now that it's only on the lower parts of the gun, and I like the flat-top slide.
There's a bit of color to the slide. I suppose I could have done a few more cycles of rust blue but honestly I don't mind it.
I also beveled the magazine well. It's not much, but it gives a little margin for error on fast magazine changes.
So nothing earth-shaking or radical; just a few simple cosmetic and functional modifications. I'll be heading for the range tomorrow morning and see how it all works out.
