so, Gravity Tester gets this "try out" gun for a 1911....against my advice...but hey, no one ever listens to me anyway  ....





when my eyes are finally layed upon it I can hardly express the urge to shriek like a little girl....to say it was ugly would have been an understatement....I shook my doubting head in disbelief.....


yet...something told me that this gun could be returned to some semblence of "glory".  Despite the Auto Ordinance frame ( which was actually in fairly good shape ) there were a couple components worth salvaging and I have ( or had, rather.... ) a box full of Colt, Ed Brown, Wilson, Springfield, etc, parts....

Soooo, first, GT and I fully stripped the gun and started ditching parts....off went the gas pedal slide stop, the barrel, many of the springs, the firing pin, the extractor and a couple pins.  Then....in true WECSOG style....out came the dremel and the files.....

After SEVERAL hours of fitting, assembling, disassembling, more fitting, reassembling, blending, more fitting.....more re-assemlbing....we had something to take to the range......something out of a Wes Craven film, anyhow.....

Off to the range where we spent another couple of hours testing, tweaking, testing, disassembling, more fitting, re-assembling, etc.  FINALLY after fighting with the extractor tension for what seemed like forever....WE GOT IT.  We finally got 100 rounds straight without a bobble.  WHEW!!!  Our fingers bled....we whined like little girls.....and our fingers bled some more.

 After some more judicious blending and the addition of a Colt Nylon trigger ( we can't find an acceptable aluminum one at the moment )  and a newer ( brand new ) recoil spring the poor thing looked more like a Calico Cat than a 1911.  Sigh.....my hopes were dimming, despite the fact it shot very accurately for a Frankengun and it was now up an running strong....I felt this gun was gonna be the ugly girl at the school dance.  A good girl...but not one that anyone was gonna look at.....

 Well, off to the sand blaster......here's where Gravity Tester comes in to save the day....we stop by a local shop and purchase some blaster and park tank time...and I drop a few hundred on parts and sevices for my soon to be redone Browning HP.  But hey, that's another thread.   Anyway, G_Tester is good with a blaster so he goes to town on almost evry part we have with a nice Aluminum Oxide grit.  After some VERY heavy blasting and reblasting....into the park tank ( with a black park additive ) and then out in the Arizona sun to dry and soak up some rust sop and then heavy coats of oil.


After re-polishing up the feed ramp and barrel hood....and a heavy coat of my "Ancient Chinese Secret" oil soak mix for good measure.....we put her back together.....


Here's what we have so far ( and the pictures aren't half as good looking as the gun in real life ):










 Well, it isn't perfect, there's couple of things cosmetically that I couldn't fix and I wish I had a nice aluminum trigger with no holes in it.  It would fit better than the nylon  trigger does....but it feels really nice.  The bottom of the frame and the MSH pin hole weren't in spec so I ground the base of the frame a bit.  Though a tad short, the integral mag well is still well preserved and GI mags seat just flush.  Still, on the whole...this thing turned out like a GEM.  After racking the hell out of the gun and saoking it in MORE oil and blasting it with compressed air and adding MORE oil....she is smoothing out like a dream.....and she looks like she's gonna be spending time on the dance floor, not just hanging out by the auditorium bleachers by herself.

 Now, to go shoot it and see how much stuff needs retweaked....she hand cycles very well....but that only tells you so much.

 Shall report further.

.

Quoted: Nicely done!  I know how rough that gun was, and all I have to say is don't let Mike see it.  He might be missing it about now.

I did the parts fitting and blending....Mike actually did the blasting and the park so he already knows.  He did a VERY good job.  

 Here be some more pics:

Dang! That's a purty gun!

DM, you kick ass!

Now we just need to feed it another 350 rounds to make sure everything works, and it'll be a carry gun! (my hand has swollen up in protest already!)

Looks much better however you have GOT to change that trigger, looks fugly! :P

Quoted: Looks much better however you have GOT to change that trigger, looks fugly! :P

OI! Be nice! It's better than it was! *shaking his head* Any Suggestions for improvements?

Nice job.

Can I ask what blast media you used?  The Harbor Freight nearby only carries 70 grit Aluminum Oxide, and that seems pretty coarse.  They also carry 80 grit glass beads, but that doesn't seem much better.

Quoted: Quoted: Looks much better however you have GOT to change that trigger, looks fugly! :P OI! Be nice! It's better than it was! *shaking his head* Any Suggestions for improvements?

Well as was mentioned I think he said he wanted a nice aluminum non-holed trigger.  Sounds good to me.  I'm not knocking the gun mind ya, just that trigger .  The gun as a whole looks WORLDS better!!!!

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Looks much better however you have GOT to change that trigger, looks fugly! :P OI! Be nice! It's better than it was! *shaking his head* Any Suggestions for improvements? Well as was mentioned I think he said he wanted a nice aluminum non-holed trigger.  Sounds good to me.  I'm not knocking the gun mind ya, just that trigger .  The gun as a whole looks WORLDS better!!!!

One of the gang turned me on to the Burns "Hard Use" trigger....very simple aluminum trigger with ZERO frills.....I think that's the one for this gun.  Yes, the Nylon trigger is a bit ugly but it's the best we had...and THAT is better than what was on it.

Don't sweat it....we'll be ordering one soon!

Quoted: One of the gang turned me on to the Burns "Hard Use" trigger....very simple aluminum trigger with ZERO frills.....I think that's the one for this gun.  Yes, the Nylon trigger is a bit ugly but it's the best we had...and THAT is better than what was on it. Don't sweat it....we'll be ordering one soon!

I have the Burns hard use trigger on a couple guns, and I like it a lot.  However, the Greider trigger will be very similar, with the exception of a overtravel screw on it.

did you do your own parkerizing or did you have a shop do it ?

Quoted: did you do your own parkerizing or did you have a shop do it ?

I lucked out and was able to bribe a friend into letting me borrow his blasting cabinet and park tank. I blasted it and parked it...

w00t!

Who's park solution did you use and what kind of ratios?

I have a tank and burner and use Brownells solution but am open to trying something new. That looks like a nice dark finish. Manganese Phosphate?

Quoted: w00t! Who's park solution did you use and what kind of ratios? I have a tank and burner and use Brownells solution but am open to trying something new. That looks like a nice dark finish. Manganese Phosphate?

To be honest with you, I don't know. The tank was full and hot when we got there....

Quoted: Quoted: w00t! Who's park solution did you use and what kind of ratios? I have a tank and burner and use Brownells solution but am open to trying something new. That looks like a nice dark finish. Manganese Phosphate? To be honest with you, I don't know. The tank was full and hot when we got there....

IM sent.

solution was normal Brownell's Manganese Phosphate at 190 degrees.  On the steel we parked the finish came out a nice medium/dark grey right out of the tank.  After a nice oil soak the finish becomes an VERY dark grey, close to black.  Harder/varied alloys of steel may be lighter or darker depending upon their chemical composition.

I actually used the park solution to "dull" some 1911 stainless parts that I reblasted after dehorning....interestingly I had a stainless ( ??? ) hammer that turned a VERY dark grey in solution....a light bead blast turned it a perfect shade for my Pony....


ETA: I am unsure of the ratio's used but the solution seems to last quite some and apparently only the water evaporates out of the solution ( I think )....the only thing I suggest is marking  "high level" and "low level" on your tank when you find a ratio that you like and then fill back to that line with water when the solution evaporates down....at 190 degrees the tank gets refilled with water about 3 times a day.