Many US shooters are fascinated with the 1911 pistol.  The 105 year old design still has a strong following.  Some even consider it the ultimate fighting pistol.  Even though I spend most of my time behind a Glock, I get it.  The precise fit of the parts, the eloquent design, the crisp trigger and positive safety make for a unique blend of form, function and performance.

Since its inception, the 1911 has been the target of the custom gun maker and gunsmith, often serving as the gateway firearm on many journeys to gunsmithing.  In the past century plus, almost everything that can be done to the 1911 has, and it never really gets old or tired.  I’ve don’t limited work on 1911s in the past and decided it was time to start customizing some guns.

This is the first part of a multi-part series, in this post we’ll cover how to get started on the project.  This will include selection of our pistol to customize, planning what work we wish to do to it and ordering basic parts and tools.

I’ll be customizing a Remington R1 1911 pistol (above).  This is a series 80 type gun with an internal firing pin stop and a utilizes a cast frame (more on this later).  I selected it for a number of reasons, it is made in Alabama, USA; reasonably priced, and has a thick cast frame which gave me a lot of options to work with.  Plus, as a guy who builds a lot of custom Remington 700s and 870s, the R1 fit in the family.

While some of the projects in this initial series of posts on the 1911 will use a milling machine, the 1911 doesn’t require one.  It is possible to build a complete 1911 with parts from Brownells using a series of hand tools.  Yet another reason why this gun is so popular.

There are some outstanding resources for the 1911 gunsmith.  Perhaps the greatest, are the two volumes of Jerry Kuhnhausen’s 1911 shop manuals, the “Colt 45 Auto Shop Manual” and “US M1911 and M1911A1 Shop Manual- Volume II“.  These two books are chock-full of drawings, diagrams and information about every aspect of the 1911 pistol and well worth the investment.  As a writer, I am still impressed with the amount of information contained in these books.

Beyond the Kuhnhausen manuals, help is just a phone call away.  If you ever have a question on a project, the Brownells Gun Tech’s are a phone call away.  These are gunsmiths that work at Brownells to help you with any gunsmithing questions.  A valuable, and potential project saving resource- and its free!  Mike Watkins, one of Brownells Gun Tech’s, wrote this piece on building a 1911, which is worth reading.

If you are a visual learner that likes pictures, Blindhogg Gunsmithing is an excellent resource.  The author has a considerable amount of topics on the 1911 available for free and is a great starting point for any project.

This project begins with a stock Remington R1 full sized pistol.  I selected a full sized pistol because they tend to be the most reliable.  Deciding on what I wanted to do to it was another task, not so much coming up with the ideas, but deciding when to stop.   Since the barrel and slide to frame fit are satisfactory, those will not be addressed in this series of posts, but will be in the next 1911 project we complete.  After careful contemplation, I decided to:

• Install low mount sights
• Install a new grip safety
• Install new fire control parts
• Make ball mill cuts on the slide
• Machine chamfer the bottom edge of the slide
• Chain link texture the front strap
• Blend and chain link texture a new main spring housing
• Undercut the frame
• Cerakote the entire pistol

Once I decided what to do, it was time to order the parts.  I’ve had great luck with Wilson Combat and gave them a call.  Wilson is held in high regard amongst 1911 aficionados, so they must be doing a lot right.

For this project, I am using the following Wilson Combat parts:

• #298 BBP Bulletproof grip safety
• #463T Combat Pyramid sights
• #92 FS Smooth main spring housing
• #337 BC Bulletproof hammer
• #315B Pin set
• #316G Complete spring kit
• #314 Sear
• #573 Bulletproof disconnector
• #190M Medium trigger

While some tools used to customize a 1911 aren’t gun specific, some small tools are.  It helps to have the right tools for the job.  In this case, I ordered the Brownells 1911 Armorers tool kit.   This handy kit contains all of the basic tools you need when working on the 1911 pistol.  For a list of the tools included, click here.

Gun, parts and tools in hand, we can get to work!  In part 2 of this series, we will start working on the pistol.