Refinish 1942 1911A1 frame or not?

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ric426

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Here's the deal. I've got a Colt G.I. frame that dates to 1942, that was part of a mongrel 1911A1 given to me by my late Uncle. It was built up from a mixture of left over surplus parts, so there's no collector value to speak of. The frame itself is in usable but worn condition with a lot of the Parkerizing worn off. I'm planning on using it with a quality .22 conversion kit and was thinking of refinishing the frame. I'm building the gun as sort of a tribute to my Uncle because he was a great guy and was the one who taught me to shoot handguns. I'll feel good about shooting something he gave me and I'd like it to look good, but if it'd be more appropriate to leave the frame as is, I won't mess with it.
So, what's your opinion?
 
refinish frame

a lot of the WW2 1911a1's were rebuilt by various ordnance field units as well as arsenals. Most of the guns that were all originals are sure to be in collections now including any of the surviving 500 Singers. The Singer serial #'s have an "S" prefix. If you slide is colt also there could be a lot of other Colt parts on there. The sight that RC referred you to has a lot of info on markings. I recently had to sell my 1943 Colt that was rebuilt at Springfield armory of the war and got a pretty good number for it. If it was parkerized it was rebuilt. the Rebuilding arsenal/armory would have put their stamp on it
look for those. If you do refinish it and put a 22 conversion on it try to find a Colt conversion since you have a Colt frame
 
It's a 1942 Colt frame, No.807xxx with a WB (Waldemar Broberg) inspector mark and a P proof mark by the mag release. On the left side of the trigger guard there's a W and what looks like VP in a triangle. The right side of the trigger guard there's a 6 0 stamp.
The coolgunsite.com section on arsenal rebuild markings doesn't mention those marks on the trigger guard, but I did find out that the slide stop, mainspring housing, trigger, hammer and barrel appear to be from early 1911's. I'm not using any of those parts with the frame for the conversion kit though.
 
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