Upgrading a Colt Government.

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I'll be posting pics in coming weeks as I upgrade this 1990ish Series 80 Government that was dad's and left to me 23 years ago.

I'll be staking a new front sight, and fitting a new grip safety. Thumb safety is already fitted and waiting to be re-installed. I'll reinstall the one piece Smith and Alexander mag guide/mainspring housing, Colt logo VZ grip panels. Trigger has already been adjusted to 4.5 lbs from 5.5-6lbs.

This is pretty much how it came from the Charlotte LGS when bought new in 1992, aside from the 10-8 u-notch rear sight I installed recently.

This is the last time it will look like this, but the old man would have taken his files to it a lot sooner.

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If you get a chance, share the details of the front sight staking process. I have an A1 I want to upgrade sites on and need to do the same.
 
lowcountry said:
If you get a chance, share the details of the front sight staking process. I have an A1 I want to upgrade sites on and need to do the same.
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Front sight and grip safety should be in over the weekend. I'll post some pics next week.

A conscious effort will be made to use dad's tools on dad's gun so it will be unorthodox, as are most my projects.

I got yelled at on another forum where I posted a thread of a complete spring install on a '74 S&W Model 19-3 wheelgun when someone saw one of dad's old "improper" Craftsman screwdrivers in one of my pics. Screw 'im, I say. :D

See what I did there?
 
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Bottom of factory sight tenon swaged into recessed square around square hole for tenon. fullsizeoutput_908.jpeg IMG_0794.JPG

This is where I had to get my MacGyver on. I sold my house along with shop and bench vise last summer. We do what we have to.
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Sight blade twisted off.
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When the green Loctite 620 arrives from Dawsons Monday I'll clean the slide hole and sight, apply Loctite, and tape sight into place so it can cure before swaging in the bottom of the tenon inside the slide.
 
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Swaging in the sight tenon on the new sight did not go as planned, and also bent the sight in the process. It's a delicate little beast to be whacking on it with a ball peen hammer via a center punch. Found the same sight on Amazon for $23, and ordered some silver solder along with it.

On to Plan B
 
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I'll be grinding down the frame tangs in the next day or so to fit the new beavertail grip safety. Hope I don't overheat the frame on the grinding wheel.

Words of wisdom welcomed. @John Travis

(not my pic, but that's exactly what it will look like when I start.)

th
 
I imagine frustrating, but nice work. Keep the pics and details coming. Looking forward to hearing how soldering the front site goes.
 
The tangs aren't really stressed so I wouldn't worry a whole lot about heat. That said, you'd be surprised how fast a file will cut those down.
 
Thanks to @Mike V for loaning me one of his bench grinders. That's the ticket for grinding the tangs down. Stripped the frame down and went to work. Heat generated from grinding was not a problem at all, but I did take it fairly slow.

Wilson provides some good instructions with the beavertail grip safety. They are much more detailed than the video they have posted on line. It helps to have an old thumb safety laying around that you can ruin by filing down to a taper to help fit the grip safety.

Before:

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After:

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Wouldn't it have been easier to have the Pink AR lady do the grinding for you? :confused:
 
Once the tangs are ground down flush with the jig, the hand fitting begins, although I did cheat and use the grinder some more. The finish on the frame looks much better than the flash up close would lead you to believe.

If you look in the bottom most hole you see how much fitting I need to do.

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Wilson thumb safety can now be inserted all the way in. I still have a couple of "snug" spots that need some work. By the way, the mag release and trigger need to be removed to fit the grip safety so there are no obstructions.

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And @Mike V Thanks for the needle files, too!

There is no other way to work the bottom of these tangs, which is the last frontier for getting this grip safety to fit without any tight spots.

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And a dremel, courtesy @Mike V with some round stones to get the contours right on the top of the frame tangs...


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...and re-blued with Presto Blue pen.

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Had to trim the leg on the grip safety for proper function.

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Beef15 said:
Looks good, appears your bluing pen works 900X better than the one I have.
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Presto Blue Pen by Birchwood Casey. First time I’ve used it. The last one I had from them was Birchwood Casey Universal Touch Up pen. It also said ”Sharpie” on the label , and that’s what it was. Useless.
 
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Beef15 said:
Looks good, appears your bluing pen works 900X better than the one I have.
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fieldgrade said:
Presto Blue Pen by Birchwood Casey. First time I’ve used it. The last one I had from them was Birchwood Casey Universal Touch Up pen. It also said ”Sharpie” on the label , and that’s what it was. Useless.
Click to expand...

They also make a pen called forever black that comes in gloss and matte finish. Works good for touching up places when installing roll pins if needed on evil black rifles
 
Beef15 said:
Yep, best mine will deliver is more of a mottled brown.
My last grip safety has been in the white for a few months while I decide what to do for a finish.
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I'm considering trying DuraCoat's aerosol kit. A friend has used it twice with great results. I would've thought it was professionally done if he didn't tell me otherwise.
 
I just realized the Wilson fitted beavertail doesn't have the skinny leg to fit next to the Series 80 firing system. The drop-in one I had in it does however. Who knew? Thought I'd never get this thing back apart. Ugh.

*filing
*filing
*keep filing
*just a little more filing.

*it still don't fit
*cursing
*cursing loudly
*filing
*file some more
*keep filing........
 
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4.5 lb trigger is now 7??

WTH
 
R1E45 said:
Not sure how you'd go from 4.5 lb to 7 lb by changing the grip safety?
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I'm going to just replace the sear spring and see what happens. I've yanked on that 25 year old spring before fooling around with trigger weight, so I'll just put a new $7 spring in there.

As an aside, the recoil spring had gotten all mushy and needed replacing even though the pistol probably has less than 1500 rounds through it, so who knows.
 
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Silver solder and flux is supposed to be in todays' mail shortly.

I've lightly sanded (220grit) the blued steel front sight tenon so as to fit better (it's still snug) in the slide and hopefully solder better. I'll degrease the slide where the sight is located, and take a lead pencil to line the areas I don't want solder to flow.

I'll just use a cheap standard soldering iron since the (96% tin 4% silver) solder only needs to heat to 475 to melt. This minimizes risk of discoloring the slide, or effecting heat treat since to actually solder or braze in 50-80% silver solder requires heat in excess of 1000 degrees.

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Have you found where that solder has been used in a gunsmithing application?
Silver solder creates a much stronger bond I do believe, of course temps involved do lead to some discoloring. Heat stop and a good torch help, but costs pile up.
 
Beef15 said:
Have you found where that solder has been used in a gunsmithing application?
Silver solder creates a much stronger bond I do believe, of course temps involved do lead to some discoloring. Heat stop and a good torch help, but costs pile up.
Click to expand...
I did a bunch of sleuthing on staking versus soldering the front sight, especially since the first attempt at staking this particular sight seems to produce a high failure rate. And this was born out in further 1911 forum surfing of others who have attempted it with this sight.

I saw lots of instances in forums of folks soldering in sights that had been staked in previously with favorable results, and as I recall using the composition of solder I've purchased. It's the same composition as what Brownell's sells that has been used and specifically named in some front sight soldering examples (Hi-Force 44). I just bought a different brand for a small quantity that comes with the correct flux from a welding supply house.

If the sight flies off at a match, I'll switch guns, and can get another sight from Amazon for $22 and try to figure out plan "C". Which might be a different sight, but HiViz makes the only staked front fiber sight for 1911 I know of.

PS - If I am woefully mistaken in any of this, somebody set me straight. It's why I'm posting. As usual, I'm in uncharted water (for me.)
 
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