Aiden

Factory warranty is a good idea. Get it squared away with them, then as you try to change parts you have a working factory part to use just in case. If you're new to 1911/2011, it's a lot easier to start troubleshooting something that worked, then developed issues. The other way around is much harder unless you have patience, money, and time to burn.

How thick is the coating on the bottom of the slide rails? Is it starting to wear? Does the slide cycle smoothly on the frame?

"Pretty much drop in" nailed it. Strap an extra steel guide rod to the front of your 1911 and you'll get an idea of the balance and weight of tungsten. It's not a lot but it's noticeable. Will it immediately make you better? No. Will it give you the balance you want? Possibly. I usually ran steel guide rods in my 6 inch guns, and I had a tungsten guide rod in my 5 inch gun.

It's very hard to add 10oz to a 2011 if you decide you want a heavier gun. You can get close to that if you had the heaviest magwell, MSH, and tungsten guide rod vs their aluminum equivalents. You can easily spend 300 bucks on the heavyweight parts. And you could decide you want an even heavier gun and you'll get those plus the steel grip ... Steel grip is a very effective way to make weight. You can always tweak weight on a steel grip gun through changing magwells, msh, guide rods. You just need to decide what weight gun you like for the sport.

I don't recommend going under 17lb main spring, especially if you're using whatever primers you find. It will have minimal impact on your recoil impulse compared to stuff like tuning the firing pin stop profile. Oversprung pretty much just refers to the downward dip from going into battery, it comes from a heavier recoil spring relative to the ammo you're putting through it. Lower power factor generally means you want to use a lower rating recoil spring. 9 is a great starting point, but you can try 7, 8, 9.5, variable, etc to get the impulse you actually want. I'm a firm believer in "if it works for you, it works for you" so you don't have to change anything if you don't have complaints.

All things are possible through time and patience. The tricky part is accurately judging how much you have of each. Starting with interference fit might not save you time overall, but I certainly would've appreciated having two pieces of metal that were at least somewhat close in dimensions. But I'm impatient and shouldn't be left alone with a file. Short dust covers for life.

I used a Caspian slide and a CK frame for my first build. There was... A lot of fitting involved. If you can find someone to sell a matched frame and slide it'll save you a lot of work for your first build. Of course that's one step away from just having someone build you a gun lol

No rattle here

Could also do the ol Magpul grip covered with the most aggressive silicon carbide grit you can find

You could easily Dremel material from the BITE grips. If you had to remove a ton you could probably reinforce the remaining part of the grip panel with epoxy or something.

If you are into palm swells... https://usa-shop.armanov.com/shop/spidergo-pistol-grips-for-1911-pistols-131?category=3&search=grips#attr=183,188

If they don't come with a screw, you could probably add one to your cart from wherever you purchase the grips. I've used o rings, star washers, and good ol blue loctite to keep the grip screw from coming loose. You might get some superficial marks on your frame depending on your finish. But that just comes with the territory.

Yep definitely a lot of material to the safety. Which means you'll be fitting it regardless of what ignition you use. But that means you'll be able to get a perfect fit to your setup. As an added bonus, your STI sear is not modified to be fit to a safety.

I'd assume yes you need to fit the safety but as with all things 1911, "we'll see what fits when we get it". If you're working with a first gen Trojan you might be on hard mode because they had some very questionable specs. Can confirm TheSandMan49's first gen Trojan was terrible.

If you're going to be doing your own work and want it to be simple, go SVI. I've run EGW, EE (and Brazos), SVI, etc, and they all can be great. But there are minor differences between them all. Hogrider linked a really good post that goes into nitty gritty of sear and hammer engagement. If you're feeling confident, then mixing and matching or using your preferred sear is a good option. But if you want to just drop parts in and have a good chance of it working great, all SVI is your best bet.