Darkmind
Member
I was cleaning out the safe the other week when I picked up my colt and got to thinking. This Colt has an SN that dates it back to 1943. The pistol was very poorly refinished sometime in the sixties when the last owner purchased it. After a good detail striping a quick look at everything shows that a lot of the internal areas and inside parts still have the original parking on them. He also put some target sights on it for bullseye shooting. He also put in a factory drop in barrel some time in the sixties. I still have all of the of original parts minus the sights. So since the pistol has been refinished and target sights put on, the collectors value has been kicked out the door.
I got to thinking some more and started to realize how much dust it has been collecting from the time I picked it up. I began to wonder how much it was worth and how much I could get out of it. I knew right off the bat that I did not want to get rid of it, but I just was not sure what to do with it. I have not been doing very much shooting of the .45 flavor and have had most of my hobby money tied up in other things. So I ended up doing an appraisal by email and pics. The gentleman was somewhat close on the amounts that he quoted me, but I was somewhat insulted by the fact that he would not give me more than $135 clams for it. I told him that this was not some kind of parts gun and that I was not interested in selling it anyway and left it at that.
After a nice ice cold glass of milk and some more thinking ( also a nice talk and a little persuasion from Mr. 1911 Tuner ) I said to myself hay I'll just restore it. So thats where I'm at now but I have a number of questions.
1) Sights, where should I go to get some 1943 era sights? Mr 1911 Tuner was gracious enough to tell me that he mite be able to help me out with a front sight. But I still need to come up with a rear sight.
2) Refinishing, where do I look too for a 1943 era repark job? I also want it done right the first time. I will be very upset with my self if I put money into a repark job and get the pistol back and find that some markings have disappeared. I understand that there will be a chance that some markings may not be saved, but I want to do everything I can to make sure that ALL of the markings make it out of the reparking with out any problems.
3) The target sights, because of the prior owner putting target sights on it is there a chance that he did any kind of cutting to the slide? As of right now the rear sight sits in a grove that looks something like this /__\. If he did some kind of cutting is there a chance that the rear sight area can not be fully restored? If thats the case I'll just look into getting a DuPont finish and doing it up as a carry pistol.
4) Also need a lanyard loop, need to keep an eye out for one at the gun shows.
So thats where I'm at now, questions and research. So now that the question are out of the way, on to some gun candy for everyone.
I got to thinking some more and started to realize how much dust it has been collecting from the time I picked it up. I began to wonder how much it was worth and how much I could get out of it. I knew right off the bat that I did not want to get rid of it, but I just was not sure what to do with it. I have not been doing very much shooting of the .45 flavor and have had most of my hobby money tied up in other things. So I ended up doing an appraisal by email and pics. The gentleman was somewhat close on the amounts that he quoted me, but I was somewhat insulted by the fact that he would not give me more than $135 clams for it. I told him that this was not some kind of parts gun and that I was not interested in selling it anyway and left it at that.
After a nice ice cold glass of milk and some more thinking ( also a nice talk and a little persuasion from Mr. 1911 Tuner ) I said to myself hay I'll just restore it. So thats where I'm at now but I have a number of questions.
1) Sights, where should I go to get some 1943 era sights? Mr 1911 Tuner was gracious enough to tell me that he mite be able to help me out with a front sight. But I still need to come up with a rear sight.
2) Refinishing, where do I look too for a 1943 era repark job? I also want it done right the first time. I will be very upset with my self if I put money into a repark job and get the pistol back and find that some markings have disappeared. I understand that there will be a chance that some markings may not be saved, but I want to do everything I can to make sure that ALL of the markings make it out of the reparking with out any problems.
3) The target sights, because of the prior owner putting target sights on it is there a chance that he did any kind of cutting to the slide? As of right now the rear sight sits in a grove that looks something like this /__\. If he did some kind of cutting is there a chance that the rear sight area can not be fully restored? If thats the case I'll just look into getting a DuPont finish and doing it up as a carry pistol.
4) Also need a lanyard loop, need to keep an eye out for one at the gun shows.
So thats where I'm at now, questions and research. So now that the question are out of the way, on to some gun candy for everyone.
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