taurus project gun.

[ak907]

ive had my pt 1911 for a little over a year now. i traded it straight across for a springfield xd9. it was my first fullsize 1911, but not my first 1911. anyway, i decided to do some home brew customization on a budget. i was going to make it a cool camp gun, since now its mainly my camping/offroading gun anyways. the original finish was wearing off and scratched, which with my guns doesn't bother me as its a tool and tools get used and scuffed sometimes especially the fact that this has been carried everyday for quite sometime (before recently being replaced with a kimber pro carry). i was thinking of duracoat, i was going to do a od ish green frame, black slide and small parts/controls, and a tan hogue wrap around grip. but after days of sanding and some dremel work to break the edges off all the corners just to smooth things out, and rid my favorite pistol design of the awful billboards, im really starting to like the stainless look since all my other pistols are blued or black.
so other than to show off my current progress and how im thinking its going to look when finished, im also open to ideas and still trying to determine the best and most affordable finish/coating. was thinking duracoat black and maybe a clear if they have it. but i think ive only scratched the surface of whats out there. sorry for the long intro but gives an idea of wheres its been and going.
also i am no gunsmith, but guns are my passion especially the 1911. this is my first attempt at refinishing, im here to learn and teach and give ideas to other do it yourselfer types like me. this will be an on going thread. comment or ask away. i will do my best to reply to keep this an informative thread.

first is as it was before. with my current setup i wear when in the woods.



my favorite pass time


no more billboards



bad pic but i flared the mag well a bit


how im thinking it will look, kinda, eventually. still lots more sanding to do still reducing in grit. this is at 320 wet dry sanding



last weekend i put it back together after a good cleaning and some oil i took it to the range and put a mag through it just be sure i hadn't messed nothing up and it shot just the way i like. every round on target. i like the fact that its a loser gun. not afraid to get some dirt in there and worry if its going to shoot. i am not sure why the pt1911 gets a bad rap bysome people. i love it i would and have carry it and trust it to go bang when needed. like all 1911s some just need a tweek here and there.

thanks for looking and reading if you made it all the way through.

next might be bobtailing it. just to try it on this before my kimber.

[Rogue Booger]

Looks good!

[Largejake]

It looks good. How much of a project was it to sand the billboards off. I'm going to change my duotone to all black and I am debating on weather to sand them off or not.

[hattrick]

I took the billboards off of mine. It just takes a bit of time and elbow grease and a lot of pieces of sandpaper.

[ak907]

ya lots of sand paper. or after a couple days of hard sanding i decided to cheat and used a dremmel with a sanding barrel. just held it flat on the slide and lightly back and forth over the slide as to not gouge it or get a low spot where i could have marred it.
main thing is its not to difficult just time consuming. but a lot of fun just remember, Don't Rush Yourself. im really bad at that. but thats when mistakes happen.

personaly since i was going to refinish it any way i was gunna just put the work in and get rid of the roll marks. not that i was super bothered by them but thats what happens when you start spending to much time on a good forum. you start getting ideas!

[hattrick]

I started with 120 grit. Put the paper on a plat surface and move the slide over the paper being careful not to snag the edges. I found it wears the paper out real quick and continued sanding on worn out paper is a waste of effort. As soon as it gets easy to do move to a differnt part of the piece of sandpaper until you have used the sheet up. When the last of the marks are almost gone switch to 220 grit up until the marks are gone and then go through 400 and 800 grit. My stainless slide ended up with a brushed look which is what I wanted. If you want a mirror finish it is a lot harder to get that. I thinbk I used about 30 or more pieces of sandpaper up before I was done. But sandpaper is cheap!

[Christobear]

Did sanding down the park finish loosen the frame to slide fit? That would be my primary concern with removing the finish.

I have started doing this to some of the small parts-safeties, bushing, guide rod, etc-and am thrilled with the idea of removing the taurus logo and all that crap.

[ak907]

mine was not custom fit tight to start but when i did the sanding i just took care to not sand very much if at all on the rails. i thought about that too and did not want to alter anything for function since i liked how it shot and how reliable it was to start. since this pistol will be used out side in alaska a lot with silt, dirt, mud, water and sand the little bit of play it has i like. james.