1911 order of parts fitting

[DesertTortoise]

I picked up a RIA government model as a project. I'm not a gunsmith, but would like to learn a bit on this gun.

 

Can someone with some experience please let me know if I have these in an appropriate priority of work so I won't be undoing or redoing as I go?

 

I intend to install / complete:

1) Beaver tail grip safety w/ bobbed spur hammer

2) new trigger of some kind (long flat)

3) extended single sided thumb safety

4) smith and Alexander magwell / main spring housing

5) sear / hammer work

6) reliability work as needed

7) sights if needed (no front sight dovetail so this is the only thing I can't do myself)

8) refinish with duracoat

9) silicon carbide the stock grips

 

Gun would be for occasional single stack steel challenge and maybe IDPA CDP if I have to shoot IDPA

 

 

 

[Don_B]

You may not want to fit a new safety before you install new hammer and sear. It may or may not work with the new parts. 

[rowdyb]

Do all the trigger and safety work as one complete unit. Not a part here and there over weeks at a time.

 

Do the grips, sights and finish work as another separate block or blocks 

[DesertTortoise]

So...
strip it to the frame
fit the trigger / bow
Fit the grip safety
Bob the spur hammer
Sear and hammer adjustments
Fit the thumb safety

Then the "external" things

[Oldminger]

Fit the grip safety and thumb safety together along with sear and hammer. Once these are all functioning properly you can then work on the hammer and sear engagement if that's what you want. The rest of the blacksmithing works and finishing can be done  after that.

[DesertTortoise]

Thanks guys

[mikeyjones]

Interested in this as well, following...

[DesertTortoise]

Finally finished this up after it sat in the drawer for most of a year.

I decided to go with a staked front fiber optic and if it falls out, I'll get it cut for a dovetail site. Likewise I cold blued rather than sending it out to be refinished. So those may happen at some point in the future.

The Rock Island GI was a great candidate for this project. It's fairly tight, accurate, and best of all reliabe (I've only shot 230 grain ball through it though).

Learned a lot along the way considering I had to look up instructions for how to take the thing apart.

I used the Brazos custom action components which advertise a matched hammer, sear, mainspring tuned to a crisp 2.5 pounds. It dropped right in and pulled at exactly 2.5 points. Short pretravel, snap, and then a hard stop. Considering the base cost of the parts you get, $150 for this kit is a bargain.