My Colt 1991A1 Project Gun

[mckenziedrums]

So I bought this project for about $450 or so... Figured for a compact Colt 1991A1 it was a pretty darn good deal. It had passed through the hands of two other members of a local shooting forum I'm on and I wanted to get it completed. When I bought it there were already a few upgrades on it: S&A flat checkered mainspring housing, Nighthawk Custom tool steel commander hammer, Ed Brown Hardcore slide stop, and Wilson Tactical Extended Tactical mag release. Only one big problem! The gun had been completely stripped of its finish and the metal was in the white. To make it worse someone had started to polish the slide without having removed all the pitting first.

Here she sits as I bought her:
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Don't get me wrong... I sorta dig the beat up and weathered look... However with the metal being bare the gun would have rusted and the pitting would get worse, etc so I wanted to make sure I chose a finish that would last. I kicked around the idea of cerakote but that seemed to be the easy way out so I even thought about going crazy and going with Ionbond or something. In the end I kept it traditional on the frame and had it reblued. For the slide and other parts I actually chose industrial chrome. It adds a bit of weight but it's a super tough plating option and should last a long time. The two tone idea came about because my wife LOVES to lay her hands on every two tone Kimber she sees. Figured I'd pick a color scheme that she'd enjoy too! Also, it's hard to make out but that sorry excuse for a grip safety in the original gun needed to go. Went with a high ride Wilson there and splurged on a set of Mepro night sights to improve upon the original sights as well. Here she is finished:

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[Ithaca Gunner]

That's pretty dog-gone nice. I'd like to get one of those grip safeties with the extended palm stud for my Commander build.

[jakharath]

Looks great. Who did the chrome work?

[mckenziedrums]

Local guy to here did the industrial chrome for me... Actually talked me into it rather than doing the Ionbond route. It is certainly a tough finish and should hold up well over time.

Didn't realize until I saw the safety against the frame that someone had already done some trimmer to fit the frame to a different beaver tail. Asked around with the former owners and it turns out it was mostly trimmed for an Ed Brown so I may hunt one of those down and see if it fits a little better. Can't really trim to fit this one so there is certainly a gap there. Shame because that's a nice piece too!

[DougGuy]

I see the slot in the slide for the tab that holds the recoil spring plug, after having extensive experience with a Colt Officer's model for a while, I can tell you do NOT trust that tab if that's a blued steel plug! You will get longer life out of a stainless plug, but that blued steel plug has a bad habit of cracking around the lug and launching the spring and guide rod down range.

There is a better way to do that, you can find an aftermarket plug with a flange all the way around it, a little bit of the bottom of the slide where the notch is gets machined off to compensate for the thickness of the flange but you won't ever have to worry about it breaking. Just a heads up..

[jmsj]

I like the Chrome/blue contrast!
How does she shoot?