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have a nice original Commander model 1911A1, cept,,bubba thought he coule make a match gun, installed a bo mar sight rail, trigger shoe, half assed beaver tail safety, and ground the back of the hammer with a grinder to make it fit said safety.
i removed the sight rail,
and it starts
4 holes d&t, and he ground a notch along with the front sight, and put a flat spot on the nose.
with out stripping the original finish on slide, i welded the holes, first heating the slide in my oven at 400dg, for an hour, to pre heat the metal, then welded the holes shut,
rough dressed them with a draw file, then final sand with a flexable belt sander,
i covered the sides with clear tape first so when i slip, i wont create more work for myself,
i then marked the top of the slide with blue Chem steel marker, and hit it again, till its even,
i took the nose down, and leveled it with the rest of the slide, the notch looked worse then it was.
bead blasted with the tpe masking the sides.
i also installed rear and front sights, since i could still see a little bugger from the grinder marks, i used a wider and taller then factory front and rear sight,
another note, someone had played with the rear dove tail, and i had to straighten it out as well,
i blued over the original finish, as well as the new repair,
you can still see a couple small pin holes from the wire welder being pulled back...
its been my experiance, if you try and fill them again, they will only get wose..a tiny divit is better then a 6/48 hole drill all the way through..
i used Cast and stainless steel salts mixed with my standard blue salts, to match the Colts Dark blue...
i also replaced the trigger, hammer, grip safety, sear ect with original Colt Commander parts that i had in stock.
Well done! We always ended up with dark marks where the wire feed weld was. It's a good thing he didn't try to round butt it or grind the frame for the safety. That would have made the cheeze more binding.
iv got good luck with the oven heating, and mixing my salts..you can still see the repair, but it doesnt stand out like a sore thumb.
Now, if it was only a bit closer to me so I could give it a quick 2-300 rds or so.
if you were here, id let you give it a run..wish i had more time to shoot..other then a test fire in the dirt...i havnt been to the range since last summer.
now for my next Oh Sh&t project.
long time customer, asks if i can blue a Model 12...yea, kinda. i say, should be rust blue, i dont rust blue, but can use military type black oxide, it will be black, and not yellow or purple.
he then tells me this is a shotgun he gave to a gunsmith 10 years ago, and never got it finished,
ok, well, bring over lets see.
brings me over box O parts..who ever he gave this to, had taken the thing completely down,, even the bolt assembly, and all the parts were in a plastic fishing lure box....
oh boy....
well, i dont have a problem if im the one that took them apart, but when someone else take em down, it hard to get em back right and working.
i was up till 11:00 last night, looks like im missing a few pins for the trigger assembly....
reminded me of the HD military pistol, i got at a gunshow in a cigar box, taken down...for 50.00
i though, shoot, im a gunsmith, ill have this up and running in an hour.....lol...right...2 mos. later, i finally have it together, was missing a few springs, pins, and screws...
i have those High Standard pistols down for sure....
We had a rule, if you strip it you assemble it. If the customer brings in a questionable gun, test fire it right away for function. That way if it doesn't work he can stand there like a cactus eatin' jackass as you quote him higher prices for service. It sure solved a bunch of problems. I once had a couple of friends bring me a 94 Winchester carbine, circa 1954 in a firepail. I saw them coming from my basement window. I knew them well and knew it would be bad. They had decided to just "knock it to peices" to clean it. They had hammered on the locking block until it had changed the track it's in. They had tried to tap out the little pins that hold in the feed lips inside(they're screws from the inside) - you know the ones I mean. It took me an hour to get it to where I could reassemble it, then re assemble it. All I got out of that one was a promise of a drink at happy hour. That didn't happen. Never even got a chance to buy the gun later. I also bought a Remington 31 because I always wanted one. Condition not too important because I can fix it...well, I got it working and sold it before it caved in again. Hope the other guy isn't too vexed. I have a hundred other sad tales but I know you can match them and these guys probably don't want to hear then anyway. SO..get into your Brownells pin stock and get fishing for those pins!
FWIW, many 1911's have a small flat milled there by the front sight on purpose from new. Not sure if the CCC ever had that or if bubba did it, but to my eye it looked too nice and flat and uniform for bubba's standard filing job.
Nice repair though.
Personally, when I do these, I usually plug the holes first with screws left slightly below grade and then cap weld over those. You then don;t have to do as deep a penetration weld. I'm always worried about changing the heat treatment at the recoil lug recesses in the slide.
My Auto Ord has the flat spot you speak of. Otherwise I think the sight would sit proud of the slide. The edges might not sit flat.
you can see the grinder marks in the first pic..havnt seen a 70 model Colt with a flat spot other then a gold cup.