Finished my "winter" project - a new 1911 is born...

by JD, Western Washington, Thursday, November 28, 2013, 00:00 (3957 days ago)
edited by JD, Thursday, November 28, 2013, 00:03

So I got in a little bit of a hurry and finished my "winter" project a few months early. but I'm happy with the results!!!

I had built this Colt Series 70 45 ACP upper about 30 years ago and put it on an Essex lower (Yuk... and I do mean yuk!!!). The Essex frames of that time period were lacking in about all areas. I eventually got rid of the frame, but kept the upper. I occasionally swapped it back and forth with the 22 upper on a Colt Service Model Ace. This year I decided that since I had the spare upper, I should build a lower for it. I ordered a Caspian stainless frame, with checkered front strap and integral plunger housing. It took about 3 months for the frame to arrive, and during that time I collected all the rest of the parts from Brownells.

I must say the the Caspian frame is certainly high quality. Everything is exactly where it is supposed to be. I had to take a little off the rails to get the slide to fit correctly, but still snugly (This Colt slide was a rather loose fit on all the other frames that I had tried it on...). I fitted the rest of the parts. The Grip safety took about 5 hours of work to fit to the Caspian frame radius, but I was going slow to keep from making a mistake, and amazingly I managed to get it done without screwing up

I haven't fired it yet, but everything seems to just about perfect. Hopefully I'll get to the range and give it a try sometime over this Thanksgiving weekend.

I'm a happy camper and it is one more thing that I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving, so I thought I would share.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my brothers here!!!!!!!!!!