1920 Colt 1911 comercial find.
Picked up an interesting basket case. According to serial number, it was made by Colt in 1920. It had some pitting polished out and re-blued for an ugly finish, and for some reason had the channels in the top of the slide opened up to make a sloppy barrel fit, allegedly to allow it to shoot blanks or some such nonsense. The barrel slopped around in the 1920 slide.
I tried the barrel (which appeared unmolested) in a different slide, and it was nice and tight. I stripped the slide, and put everything in a Brazilian contract slide. It was a direct fit, as I did not even have to change barrel links. Took it to the range and it ran like a champ. He also had a series 70 barrel bushing (which I kept), a funky Commander style hammer, which I replaced with a Colt 1911A1 wide spur hammer, and a badly pitted mainspring housing, which I replaced with a 1911A1 arched one with lanyard ring. I also added a nice set of diamond grips, though it had a nice set of fully checkered ones which I kept.
End result is a Franken-Colt. I plan on using it for shooting Cowboy Action "Wild Bunch" matches.
It is amazing that this 103 year old Pony rides again!
