Norcal Spotted and BS Thread

It's a nickel-plated Colt 1911 with stag grips and missing the rear sight. The finish is worn in places. It's not very pretty. I'd like to return it to its original finish.

EDIT: It looks similar to this.



But I want it to look like this.

 

@The_donk does cerakote work, I'm sure he could make that thing look sweet!

 

tbh, i'd just do it at home. you can use nickel plating remover, then bring the stuff to your local hazardous waste disposal, or store it for future use.

Then just blue at home using ammonium nitrate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_IeMl6R8fc

After you're done, buy a punch, buy a new rear sight, put your slide in a vice, and tap it in.

If you don't want an M1911-A1 sight, you can always get a gunsmith afterward to do the machining work to cut in a new sight cut like a novak for some night sights.


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Edit: The other thing though, nickel is actually a more durable finish. but you know, you do you.

if you want night sights or anything tacticool like an RMR, you'll need a gunsmith to do all the cuts for you, at this point getting forward slide serrations, cuts for a racking lever, fixed red dot mounting base would be good to do before refinishing. In this situation, the process is:

1. strip
2. cut
3. refinish
4. press check like an instagrammer

 

Ooooo... pretty

 

Well since you didn’t include a price or photos... I’ll give you $50 for it sight unseen.

 

This is the actual gun. Serial number dates it at 1918. The finish isn't terrible.

 

Whoa dude... If the serial number dates it to 1918, I'd really be careful what I did to it. A restore could actually drop the value. That's a piece of history right there.

 

i mean, it's not that bad. I'd probably just polish it and see how it looks first. And when I say polish, I mean like with oil and a cloth. don't go grinding away at it.

 

That thing is awesome! Sounds like you aren’t interested in selling, but if you did sell, I bet that puppy would fetch some hot coin on the market... especially cleaned up.

 

I'm not going to DIY it. I figured a 102-yo Colt deserves better.

 

No, I didn't think you would diy it. But ANY type of restore may be bad for value. Old guns don't actually (always) have to be pristine to have value. Some times when you restore a gun of that age it looses value, even if it is done very nicely. I may be mistaken in this case, but I would definately check with someone who knows before I'd do anything to it.

A 102 year old (1918) Colt is special.

 

actually on second thought, if that nickel plating was done after the fact, value is probably pretty low. they were selling for 300-500 w/ nickel plating from that vintage in 2012.

unplated/unmodified models were definitely higher in price. I'd do a little more research.

 

I does look kinda cool in the shoulder holster. Makes me feel like going downtown and hassling some punks.

 

I LOVE me some 1911... my 1911 is BY FAR my favorite gun to look at, as well as my favorite gun to shoot.

But if I had a 1918 Colt... I would probably have it under glass somewhere.

 

This.

 

I've never fired it. It has a little hitch in the beginning of the slide action, but I don't know enough to know if that's a problem of not.

 

If the hammer isn't back when you rack the slide there may be a good bit of resistance (it's the slide cocking the hammer).

If the hammer is cocked... the slide may have a little resistance at first, but then should be smooth as butter the rest of the way.

 

Field stripping it isn't super hard. Just brush on some mobil1 or similar synthetic motor oil and rack the slide a bunch of times.

 

I've never used Mobil 1 (not saying there's anything wrong with it, just that I never use it, except that's the only thing I put in my motor lol)

Lately, I've used
Frog Lube
Liberal Tears (now no one go f'n banning me for that... it's the actual name of the product)

Or this is becoming my favorite.


Smells like cherry and slicker than dog snot... and doesn't gum anything up.

 

yeah, mobil1 is the common one to use amongst competition shooters. The reason is its high high tolerance to heat. When some folks do 700+ rds in a 1-2hr practice session and need a leafblower to cool down their guns, mobil1 really works.