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I picked up a CAI 1911 style .45 last night. This is a GI 1911. I plan to do some considerable upgrades to it. Anyone have suggenstions for drop in parts? Brownwells? Midway?

What about a gunsmith in DFW that can work on the slide? I'm thinkin dovetail some night sights and open up the ejection port some.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. I will probably spend some time over on the 1911 forums too.

I've never done a prject like this, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Congrats and have fun. Brownells or Midway would be my first choice for parts.

Since AR-15's are "Barbies for Men", my daughter says 1911's are "Barbie - The Classic Edition".



It's truly an addiction.

I think that Brownells has a more extensive selection of tools for this job than does Midway; parts as well - YEMV.

The biggest problem with a 1911 project is there are so many manufacturer's to choose from :-)

I highly recommend Brownells for both parts and tech support.

I'm no expert, so here are my "opinions":


Note, not all 'drop in' parts are drop-in. And some 'gunsmith only parts' may drop in. For brands, you can't go wrong with Wilson or Ed Brown, but there are a host of other companies that make excellent parts as well. For 1911 hammers and sears I always buy Chip McCormick. Note also, there are some incompatibilities (fortunately not many):

beavertail grips: Wilson & Brown make different beavertails (not drop in) that require filing the back of the frame to fit. Once cut for one style, the other won't work.

barrels: there are 3 'ramp' types:
# original GI, aka non-ramped - where the frame and barrel form the feed ramp
# wilson fully-ramped - requires a GI frame to be machined for this to fit
# clark fully-ramped - requires a GI frame to be machined for this to fit (aka Para ramp)

Most of the bigger barrel makers can supply a barrel with any of the 3 ramp types.

If I were to build a 1911 from parts, this is what I would pick:

barrel - clark/para ramp. BarSto or Storm Lake
hammer/sear - chip McCormick
beavertail - ed brown
magazines - PSI-ACT or Tripp Cobra
sights - EGW or Dawson fibre
sprints - Wolff
all other parts - wilson or ed brown

Check these guys out for gunsmithing. I hear they are good people, located in Roanoke.

http://www.advancedgunworks.com/index.php

Thanks for all the good tips and suggestions. Great video AndyC. I've never stripped a 1911 down all the way before.

I'm beginning to realize that this project could have a high price tag. I want to make it nice, but I don't want to spend so much that I could have gone and bought a nice Baer... I also don't want to buy top of the line components and add them to a cheap cast frame and slide.

I am definintly learning a lot about the inner workings of the gun.