Has anyone else built a 1911 Franken-pistol?

[JoeHatley]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had the urge to "build yer own" , let's see yers. Here's mine...





Put this together about 10 years ago. At the time, I had never even so much as detail stripped a 1911, so the outcome was in doubt.

Started with a gun show Colt slide and barrel and had a friend order me an unfinished stainless Essex frame. Boy did that take a lot of time to cut and polish!!!

Added a Briley sperical bushing and Pachmayr grips. Everything else is Wilson Combat. Paid retail for most of the parts, so I ended up spending much more than a new "store bought" 1911 would have cost. Probably close to $700, but I don't regret it.

Fantastic learning experiance!! Didn't use anything more than a few stones and a lot of wet/dry sandpaper. Spent literally hundreds of hours hand fitting . (remember, I didn''t know what I was doing)

It started out pretty tight, but it's getting a little loose 10 years later. But, hey... it's got over 20k rounds though it!! It will still hold the 10 ring at 25 yards, and the 9 ring at 50. (on days when my eyes work)

I know there are other "Kitchen Table Smiths" out there. Lets see what you've done...

Joe

 

[Dr.Rob]

Well lets see ODI Viking frame was $200 or so, Colt upper was $200 complete. Wilson parts, McCormick mags, Springfield Mil-spec recoil spring, houge monogrip.. call that $100 bucks, $200 to assemble, another hundred in an action job and its NO WHERE as pretty as yours.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39701

 

[HSMITH]

I have built several 1911's but no pics of them were taken I have since sold and traded all of them but the urge is building again. This winter I will build a 1911 or a couple AK types, not sure yet which.

 

[tex_n_cal]

This is a 9mm Series 80 LW Commander, that began life as a .45 Commander frame. Yes, it can be made to work.

The ejector remains the original .45 version, and it works fine with this pistol. Theoretically, all I need do at the range is swap slide stop, magazine, and top end, and I can switch between 9mm and .45.

 

[1911Tuner]

Uh..Joe,

If that was your first attempt fro stone cold, you've missed your
calling. What I want to see is your latest one. Bravo lad...Bravo!

One of my recent Frankenguns was a nightmare.

A 1995 production Auto Ordnance frame that was badly out-of-spec.
A friend had bought the gun (GM-length) and brought it to me to
get the issues worked out. Much manipulating got it running well,
and he broke the slide 2 years ago. He sold the busted gun to me
for 50 bucks.

A used Essex Commander-length slide. A used Springfield 5-inch
drop-in barrel that had seen maybe 500 rounds. I fitted a kart
barrel to the guy's gun, and he gave me the Springfield barrel
for my trouble.

King's trigger...Wlson BP firing pin, extractor, link and pin. Brown hammer, sear, and disconnector. Colt mag catch, grips, and rear sight. (I made
the front sight.) EGW firing pin stop...MGW hard-fit barrel bushing.
A Masen flat MSH...used. A GI thumb safety and modified grip
safety...copied the Series 80 Commander factory grip safety, with
a little upsweep.

I had to cut the barrel to fit, and shorten the bushing. MGW doesn't
make them for Commander-length pistols. Reshaped the lower lug,
and cut the extension in front of the front locking lug flush to the
face of the lug. Regained enough slide travel to get it to run by
thinning the guide rod head...(Brown FLGR) A McCormick slide stop
along with hammer. sear and disconnector were the few new parts
that I used. Wolff springs throughout, including a 16-pound recoil
spring that began life as a 32 coil GM spring, cut down to 23 coils.
A Brown extended ejector finished it off...Also used. The barrel
was finish-reamed, due to being a little tight near the shoulder.

I did some blending at the rear, and never refinished the gun. I've been
too busy shooting it, which I do weekly. It looks awful, but runs like
a Singer sewing machine...after the final tweaking...and shoots tighter
than I can prove without a rest. It's a beater, pure and simple...and
has done hard service at the range. It's been so reliable, that I
wouldn't hesitate to carry it if I needed to. It is, without a doubt,
JMB's bastard stepchild, but will keep going for 1500-2,000 rounds
without cleaning.

Build one! You won't be sorry.

Tuner

 

[Bodeen]

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a frankengun...I built it on CMC frame and slide,Kart NM barrel.

 

[1911Tuner]

Whoa!

Tex...Bodeen...If those are Frankenguns, Jennifer Lopez is kinda cute.
Beautiful work guys. Kudos to our Kitchen-Table builders here.

I've built a good many Frankenguns...mostly worn-out GI pistols
that needed various levels of restoration that sometimes required
tigging up frame rails and barrel lugs and refitting them. Some
I've refinished..some not. Satisfing work and I gained a good brace
of "working guns"...pistols that are shot regularly. Some look good,
and some don't...depending on how much effort they warranted.
5 of them turned out to be hard-use beaters, and are as ugly
as a mud fence. Some look like nice (restored) GI's..and a
few are very nice.

Good work guys...Carry on!
Tuner

 

[JoeHatley]

Wow, you guys are good!! I'm in awe and a little embarassed by how rough mine looks. Might be time to dig out the Brownells catalog and see what goodies they have.

Joe

 

[marvl]

Joe,

Very nice looking gun, but lose the Pachmayrs! Those things destroy the aesthetic of 1911s, which look best by themselves. Maybe Pachmayr should manufacture gloves.

 

[Echo23TC]

Here's mine. Nickeled Colt Commander upper, stainless Caspian officer's frame, internals from several manufacturers. Spent a lot of time fitting and there are still things I want to do, like replace the sights and refinish the whole pistol, but until then...

 

[TarpleyG]

I am working on one right now from a Norinco frame and slide. To date I have replaced the trigger group, MSH, guide rod, installed a beavertail grip safety, replaced grips. Next on the list is to have dovetails for front and rear sights cut then I am going to have it re-blued. Here she is now...

GT

 

[Navy joe]

Not really built, but a few years ago I picked up a Rem-Rand that someone had already stuck a nice trigger in and a pair of early Wilson fixed sights. At first I added Cocobolo stocks only, but as time went on... Kart barrel because the original one finally broke, CMC hammer to get rid of hammer bite, chopped a junk Sistema grip safety down to nothing to clear the commander hammer, worked the trigger down some more to a safe 4 lbs, fitted a Wilson ambi safety.

So, right now I've got a 58 year old handgun with no beavertail, lanyard ring intact, a park job beat down enough to maybe be original and parts from many different sources. The worst part? The gun is stone reliable. I love it.

 

[dsk]

Last winter I came across an ad for a stripped Colt GI frame and slide. I already had a big box of GI parts, so it was a natural for me.

Except for a newer chrome-lined GI contract barrel this pistol is back to looking like it did when it was new. All the other parts are correct for the manufacturer serial range. Parkerizing was done by Dave Helton. The pistol took me less than five minutes to assemble.

 

[BowStreetRunner]

thats purty DSK!

 

[Dorrin79]

man, dsk, that's a nice one.

That parkerizing looks ...different (and better!) than the finish on my SA Milspec.

How much was the re-finishing job?

 

[dsk]

I think Dave charged me about $75, if I remember right. However I also let him use the pistol on his website for advertising (www.dvcustom.com), so I think he gave me a break on it. It was also already prepped before I gave it to him.