I've got the colt assembly guide and use to the ar15 armorers course from them. I have zero problem in a complete tear down/assembly of the the 1911 now after watching the videos a couple times with gun in hand. I will warn, some of the dvds are transfers from tape but you get the picture. Also the books by kuhnhausen are great.
I find before I even buy a gun now I'll rent from videorental place on the net to see how complex the firearm really is and what if any extra tools are needed for it, For example upper receiver vise, punch pin, barrel wrench, vise,and lower receiver block for an ar15 you're looking at about $150 on top of the gun if you want to build one or replace parts without running into some damage or dropping it off a local gunshop for a couple days while you pay them to do the work. I don't know about you but everytime I visit the gunsmith I end up spending atleast $100. So i figure it's best to spend $10-$40 to reasearch it than to get the gun($300-$1000) then run into variables I know nothing about and dropping some more money to get it fixed. After about five years of doing this my dad set me straight "you shouldn't buy a car without talking to a mechanic? So why in the hell would buy a gun then talk to a gunsmith?"