I built this pistol from scratch. Originally, it was supposed to be a clone of the Terminator 2 Biker's Pistol, but it ended up as sorta a T2/MEUSOC/Pachmayr Combat Special. It's not really finished yet, kind of a work in progress, but it is currently functional and very tight. I wanted the frame to look like it was hard chromed, so I Dura-Coated it with a mix of  White and Parker. It was too light, so I made a new mix of Snow Grey, White, and Parker. I'll get around to getting a more silver finish on it eventually.

I like retro 1911s...

















Frame:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=24741&title=OVERSIZED%201911%20AUTO%20RECEIVER

Slide:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=6055&title=1911%20AUTO%20SLIDE

Barrel:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=7611&title=1911%20AUTO%20EASY%20FIT%20KART%20BARREL%20KIT

Pins:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1332&title=1911%20AUTO%20REBUILD%20KIT

Guts:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=5502&title=1911%20AUTO%20TRIGGER%20PULL%20KITS

Trigger:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=23562&title=1911%20AUTO%20SOLID%20ALUMINUM%20MATCH%20TRIGGER

Grips:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=9765&title=COMBAT%20GRIPS

Mainspring Housing:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=12739&title=1911%20AUTO%20LANYARD%20LOOP%20MAINSPRING%20HOUSING

Rear Sight:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=9117&title=MARK%20I%20HIGH%20PROFILE%20REAR%20SIGHTS

Front Sight:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=8842&title=1911%20AUTO%20FIXED%20SIGHT%20COMBOS

Slide Stop:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1334&title=1911%20AUTO%20HARDCORE%20SLIDE%20STOP

Firing Pin:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1323&title=1911%20AUTO%20FIRING%20PIN

Firing Pin Stop:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=26461&title=1911%20AUTO%20FIRING%20PIN%20STOP

Thumb Safety:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=9213&title=1911%20AUTO%20AMBIDEXTROUS%20SAFETY

Grip Safety:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=4578&title=GRIP%20SAFETY,%20ENHANCED,%20BLUE

Magazine Catch:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=24729&title=1911%20AUTO%20EXTENDED%20TACTICAL%20MAGAZINE%20CATCH

Guide Rod and Plug:
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1357&title=RECOIL%20PLUG%20&%20GUIDE%20for%201911%20AUTO

When I was home on midtour leave in November I built this dedicated .22, I used an Essex frame with a mix of Wilson and Ed Brown parts and topped it with a Ciener .22 kit. Finished the frame with Brownells Alum-Hyde II (the blemish on the right side is my fault, I got impatient and tried to fit an ambi safety before it cured completely). I have to say that cutting the frame and fitting the grip safety with a dremel and a file was not as easy as I'd thought it would be. I love this pistol, it shoots great and with the cost of ammo these days it's an economical way to practice.

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x66/biffjr99/IMG_2938.jpg

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x66/biffjr99/IMG_2937.jpg

http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=5&f=49&t=70569

This is my version of an FBI TRP. Built on an Essex frame and slide, Kart NM barrel, Wilson Combat internals. She was a lot of fun to build (took a long time), but is more fun to shoot. Cost was some where around $700 to build.
MB

I did something similar awhile back.












I've changed a few thing since then like adding the stainless beavertail.  The dealer discount to Brownell's and a rapport with Sarco is a must-have.  


Saved myself a bit of trouble by getting the slide already milled for Novak sight cuts and the frame with plunger tube and grip bushings already installed.  Has the nicest trigger and lightest 2 pound trigger pull of any 1911 I've ever shot, including my Gold Cup.  I'm not a big stainless fan, but I wanted a pistol not worth shit that I could abuse and tinker on...without worrying about the cost of refinishing.  

Thank goodness for the dealer discount at Brownells.  

[/quote]

Just worked on this one this week.  









Put together a .38 Super on a Rock Island frame and STI slide  (A DIY Spartan, so to speak).  Still waiting on my 9mm barrel to make it convertible from .38 to 9 and back.  
STI slide, Rock Island frame, Roto barrel, Ed Brown beavertail and hammer, Rock Island trigger, disconnector, sear (trigger works great)



 trying to decide what grips to put on it...  :


Also need to blue slide, thinking about doing it myself tomorrow.  

http://www.blindhogg.com/homemadesalts.html

This one went together much easier than the Essex.  

pics dont work, try tinypic.com or photobucket.com

Brain fart.  I knew better than that.  

purrdy

when you say "salts" what do you mean, bluing?

Yup

built this one out of the spare parts and slide i had sitting around, built on an Essex G.I. parked frame the fastest way to a G.I. type shooter pistol.

I had Chuck Rogers do the front strap and MSH texturing and blending. Unfortunately there was a casting void area that needed to be filled with silver solder. He graciously offered to Cerakote the frame for me to hide the repaired area. The rest is my work.... a rear sight made from A2 Tool Steel, Engraved logo,Dehorning,top of slide serrations and a bead blast. I'm not so sure about the rear sight yet, I don't know if I like the looks of it, I may go back to the original sight and scrap it. Anyway here's the pics. Thanks again Chuck..

no grip safety, damn

I actually considered making/welding a suado GS from the existing part that fits between the MSH and frame tangs... too much work..

what brand are your grips?








 

Not needed.

I took a bone stock Springfield MilSpec and pretty-ed her up.
I had bought a scuffed up S&W upper to try and save a blowed-up Colt Commander ,but the frame is too far gone on the Colt. But it was all stainless ....sooooo

Swapped all the internals from the Colt into the Springfield frame and did a little lapping on the rails for the SW upper......and VOILA'!!

A Smithfield Springwesson

Update.

Put S&W K-frame sights on my Essex tonight.

Here is my daddy's Father's Day Present. He has no idea he's getting anything. 9mm/9x23 convertible, Foster Railed Frame, Rock Island GI slide, KG Gunkote FDE frame and Gloss Black small parts. Stippled front strap, counter sunk slide stop, flat trigger, 3dots, everything lapped and polished, 5lb trigger.

Placeholder

Just got this back from being finished in Teflon/Moly.  Fusion frame and slide, bobtailed by them.  They were supposed to fit the frame and slide, but didn't.  I put it together using a bunch of Ed Brown parts from Brownells (thank goodness for 03 ffl discount!)  My idea was for it to be a poor man's Executive Carry.  


Fit frame and slide with lapping compound and a rubber mallet.  Ed Brown barrel and bushing, sear, hammer, disconnector, Nowlin trigger were all fit by me.  The finisher installed the sights, which are Novak clones from Fusion.  


My one bubba moment is the grip safety.  Not a big fan of big overdone beavertail's (in this case, a Brown), so I bobbed it.    I'm calling it the Bobcat (TM) Patent Pending Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved.  

Ran it before I sent it off, runs like a champ.  

The finish does seem to attract dust/lint.  











After fitting frame and slide:




Quick temporary cold blue:

Nothing major.  This pistol had only one functional problem...an extractor clocking issue.  An oversized firing pin stop fixed that.  Other than I hated the plastic parts, was annoyed by the factory grip safety, wanted adjustable sights, a better trigger, better accuracy, and it seemed to be wanting of a heavier recoil spring.  The gun range I originally purchased this from had a great staff...one of whom was a very foxy cougar that tended to be very knowledgeable and experienced...until she recommended a gunsmith to do the mods I was interested in, and showed me a customer's pistol that featured his work.  I was all and passed...it had marks, dings, scratches, mis-shapen edges and solder all over it...probably the worst work I'll ever see.  I passed and said I'd try it myself.  I purchased an army armorer's manual as well as a 1911 gunsmithing book and eventually came up with this.  The pistol originally had a 6.5 lb trigger pull, shot around 3.5" at 25 yards, and stove-piped an empty like clockwork around every 200 rounds.  After the mods it had a 4.5lb trigger, has shot around 1-1/2" at 25 yards, and hasn't jammed once in a few thousand rounds (save for the one time a mag follower ejected itself on the last shot...not the pistols fault.  All those mags now have Wilson guts.).  

Aside from recoil buffers I haven't purchased any additional parts for it since 1998.

Heyday, gimme the scoop on that pistol.  That looks exactly like what I wanted to put together for a CCW piece.

Thanks,

TR

That looks pimp dude.

See Here

wow, thats awesome!

There are some awesome builds in here....cool stuff, guys!!!

This isn't a custom pistol but I milled off the GI sights and melted in a Bomar on the gun.  The front sights are ones I make myself and cold blue to match.

Here is a switch top end gun I built, a Caspian framed gun with a .45 top end and a .38 Super topend

This is a Caspian SS frame and slides. I put Kart NM barrels in the slides, Bomars. The Kart barrels are ramped barrels so I could run hot .38 Super loads from my IPSC days.

Pics of the barrels––

This is a Series 70 Colt that I built as an old fashioned pingun. In the past someone has put an old Millet front sight on, the kind that required 2 3/16 holes be drilled in the slide for the front sight base to be "crimped" onto the slide. I cut the slide to Commander length, and the used a compensator that I made 25 years ago to make the length back up to GM length. Originally the compensator was 1 1/2" long, but I cut it back to 3/4" to put on the end of the barrel to reproduce GM length.



The next pic shows the frontstraps that I checkered to 20 lpi and forged the magwell open. I never cared for the mag well add ons, but chose to heat the frame and bend the mag well open to a flare then finish it out..


The stainless gun is stainless, big suprise! The Colt was electroless nickeled using the Caswell home plating kit.

The last pic is the business end of the compensated .45 and the Caspian wearing the Super topend


I carry either this .45 "pin gun" or the Caspian .38 Super as a daily duty gun.
the Colt has an Ed Brown beavetil that i put on. The Caspian has an old Clark SS beavertail that I heated and forged the end of the beavertail to flip up. I preferred this beavertail over all others, but sadly, Clark discontinued it about 3 years ago.

Caspian upper and lower, Kart barrel, Yost, Ed Brown, and Wilson for the rest. Melonite by Coal Creek Armory. I never want to see another file or punch again.

Thats beautiful. Plain simple and to the point but nice touches when you take a closer look.

My latest project Colt 1991
Bought it for 500.00 and figured I could use it for some practice.

Before..........


Added :
Ed Brown MSH
EGW ignition kit just a little bit of polish with a ceramic stone for a great trigger
Novak sights
Wilson grip safety
VZ Operator grips
Polished then hit everything with glass bead

About two weeks of filing and fittting and filing some more.............

Nice job Mike!  That turned out nice.

Here is My Caspian for this thread.   I posted the build but figured Id put her on here as well





Semper Fi
1*

I assembled this from a bare ParaOrdnance P14 frame in '93. I used a Para Completion kit from Auto-Ordnance to finish it. Since then though, it has been modified with a Clark ramped barrel, hi-vis adjustable sights, extended slide release and thumb safety, bobbed hammer, and ducktail grip safety. I also switched the arched MSH with a flat MSH from my 1911.

Kimber Slide, Fusion frame, assorted other parts, Kimber, Wilson,etc... Grips by Esmeralda, finished with Brownells gun kote.

Nighthawk upper with Novak adjustable sight on a Fusion frame.  Fusion, Ed Brown, and Chip McCormick parts on the rest.  Frame and small parts are painted Krylon satin black and the slide is in the original finish for the moment.  Once it is tuned up and running then I want to get it Ionbonded.  I am still trying to decide on what I want to do to the frontstrap.

Next stop is the shooting range to see how she runs.

awesome stuff you guys are making!

Built a dedicated frame for my Tactical Solutions 2211 .22lr kit. From a Caspian SS Recon frame.  Got the guts to do it after seeing Gaspain's thread.  

Not a single part dropped in.  Even the magwell was too tight to fit the magazines.  Fitting the beavertail safety was fun.  Thumb safety was just as crazy.  Just getting it to drop in, run the fullest extents and get the ambi side to fit took a load of time.  Then I I had to fit it for function and finally contour it for comfort and to match the lines of the frame.  Used a frameslot filler to use series 70 parts in this series 80 frame. Lots of fitting on that.   Also, nothing was perfectly flat on either side of where the hammer and sear are held.  Loads of tuning was done in order to get the .22lr kit to function properly.  19.5lb Nowlin spring.  Contouring hammer to not drag on bottom of slide.  Modification of slidestop and slide stop plunger for less resistance in order to work better with the weak 22lr magazine springs.  I forgot to get some pics of the speed magwell.  I did a blend that looks pretty good.  Seems that the hole in either the frame or the mainspring housing was slightly off, since it doesn't fit flush.  Oh well.  I did a lot of frame contouring to get a higher grip near the trigger guard, to de-horn certain areas that bothered me and finally changing some of the lines to more of my liking.  (I have no idea if anyone could tell.)

I might do a bit more to the frame contour.  Eventually I'd like to bead blast it and maybe paint it.

VERY VERY Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!

My homemade MEU SOC 1911A1. Started off as a SA Mil Spec and all the work except for the refinish work was done by me. All internals have been swapped out for Wilson or Ed Brown parts. I'll probably be burried with this gun. lol I love it that much.

I'll play:

http://i44.tinypic.com/im6yi8.jpg

Imbel forgings in the form of a base Springfield G.I. (first gen) 1911A1

A1 mainspring housing replaced with checkered/lanyard flat-back to make original 1911 profile.

Match grade stainless steel barrel and bushing added

Used 18# and hand-tuned recoil spring

Switched spur hammer with McCormick Skeleton hammer (and hand-cut out a channel for the new hammer in the grip-safety beaver-tail)

Kept GI trigger and low-profile safety

Painted / Baked matte KG GunKote, Black

Added VZ Grips Micarta square-bottom grips, OD Green with stainless steel grip screws

Rounded out with ACT-MAG 8rd mags.

(Serial # photoshopped out)

FRANKENPISTOL!!!  I like it!

Here's my recent build.  Started as a stock Springfield GI and ended up the way I wanted it.

- S&A flat MSH with lanyard loop
- Colt "rat tail" grip safety
- Colt Commander ring hammer
- Colt long trigger
- Colt sear and disconnector
- Colt WWI type thumb safety
- Wilson Combat Bullet Proof sear spring
- Wilson Combat Bullet Proof extractor
- EGW oversized firing pin stop
- Ed Brown drop-in bushing
- Hogue ebony wood grips

I love my all black gun!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3118618/Forum_Pics/GI/IMG_0368.jpg

This is my wife's new gun.

I bought a RIA GI Model 1911 in 38 Super and rebuilt it from the frame up.  It's my first 1911 build.  I'll get a range report up in a few days, but this is a surprise for her, so I've gotta keep range trips clandestine.  I was trying to get a really worn antiqued look to it, and I think I got it looking pretty good.  I might still use some DuraBake to tighten up the rail fit, but I'm going to check accuracy first.



Here's a link to a bigger version of the picture.

It's got a Wilson Combat GS and sear/disconnector, a Swenson hammer, and I hand checkered the front strap.  The grips are from Zipps Grips, and were custom made into thinlines.

Before, a rather beat-up example of the breed; one ear of the rear sight was snapped off, the firing pin was mushroomed enough that it wouldn't fire reliably, the trigger pull was pretty abysmal, and the whole thing was scratched and worn.  The gold plating on the slide was in pretty good shape, however.



Parts: firing pin, EGW FPS, Commander hammer, S&A MSH and GS, Nighthawk sear, Novak front sight and Yost rear, Brown thumb safety.
Work: high-cut frontstrap, carry bevel, checker frontstrap and MSH, bevel magwell, fit grip safety, cut slide for sights, general reliability enhancements (extractor, throat, springs), beadblast everything but the slide flats.  

After:







With "ivories":