# My New 1911 Gets a New Look



## SuckLead (Jul 4, 2006)

Seven© from gunandgame forum sent me a set of grips so I could take the rubber off my new sweetie. And they look simply wonderful! Not to mention the gun feels a heck of a lot better now... ya know, like a 1911. :mrgreen:

So I had some fears as to what I would find when I removed the grips. One of those fears was confirmed kinda and another jumped in that I hadn't even thought of, but it made the first fear come true. I noticed the grips were awful tough to take off and I ended up prying them off with my screwdriver. It appears someone lock-tighted the grips in place. Now, I've heard of putting lock tight on the grip screws (which they didn't do, btw), but not under the grips themselves. And they got a little happy with the glue. They completely outlined the interior of the grips, including the wrap around area. That left what I thought was rust at first on what is now exposed.

I cleaned the whole area down with some gun cleaner and it looks better, but there are two strips of something kinda rust mixed with purple on the front now (won't show up in a photo, I tried). I can tell rust is not actually playing a roll, the gun is just discolored. And double checking the rubber for shiny glue parts confirmed that. But the whole front area that was covered by this wrap around is sort of gritty looking and now has two stripes on it.

Oh well. I'm considering sending her in to Springfield for some basic maintenance, I may save my pennies and have her reparkerized while it's there.

So here she is with her new look:



















I'm lovin' on these grips, man. They're nice and light, smooth, and different than anything I've seen before, which I like. I think she looks good. What do you guys think?


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## gmaske (Jan 7, 2008)

Didn't you say that it was a rental gun? That's very strange that they would do a "STOOPID" thing like that! The grips look nice and add some flash.


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## Baldy (Jun 21, 2006)

Now that looks like a 1911 should look. The grips make all the difference in the world on them. If they used any kind of glue under the junk rubber grips the discoloring will not come out. You will have to buff down and reblue or parkerize. How's shooting with the new grips?:smt023


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## SuckLead (Jul 4, 2006)

Haven't shot her yet. I'm hoping to get her to the range next week sometime to try them out, but range time is scarce since mom's been down. I've got a lot of neglected guns right now (three of them have only been shot once, including my new CCW! The horror!). The feel is completely different, so much better. I was going to use her at my IDPA match last night... but I forgot about the match. Ooops!

As to why they'd do that to a range rental... probably so the grips didn't get gone during a busy weekend. I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the range rentals with removeable grips had them lock tighted on, too. I know they lock tighted the scopes on rental guns. But whoever put the lock tight on the finger groves needs to be slapped. That wasn't needed at all and it ruined the finish.


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## niadhf (Jan 20, 2008)

Sorry for the issues with the grips (go slap that person for me).
The new stocks however? :smt023 :smt023

Try that in IDAP soon.

She looks good.


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## tony pasley (May 6, 2006)

She is almost ready for the prom.


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## SuckLead (Jul 4, 2006)

tony pasley said:


> She is almost ready for the prom.


Not yet. She needs to be reparkerized. She got scraped up pretty bad from going in and out of display cases for two years. That will come eventually. After all, I have a Sig that needs a paint job, too.


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## Dsig1 (Dec 23, 2007)

Looks great. If you're sending it out for work from SA, look into checkering the front strap. It makes a big difference in grip control, especially now that you've made the decision not to use a wrap around grip.

Nice gun. Happy shooting!!!


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## Teuthis (Apr 9, 2008)

I have one just like it. They are good shooters; reliable and pretty accurate for basically a mil spec gun. Certainly fine for self defense and fun. Keep it and enjoy it!


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## SuckLead (Jul 4, 2006)

Oh, I will. If funds and time allow, I may be buying her some new mags and holster tomorrow so she can go to her first match tomorrow night. If this happens, I'll let you all know how she did (I'll probably suck as usual, but it says nothing about her if I do. LOL!).


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## SuckLead (Jul 4, 2006)

The new grips are keepers. They're a little slick in the hot range, but not as slick as I was fearing they would be. Even though the range was excessively hot and I was dripping sweat. It slid around a little and knocked off the shot just a touch, but it isn't anything I can't overcome and nothing that won't be beatable in better conditions. If I ever find myself in the desert where it's as hot as that range was today, I'll leave her in the backpack. Otherwise, it was a good shoot and those grips are working out well!


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## DevilsJohnson (Oct 21, 2007)

A good set of wood grips make a huge difference to me. I have some pretty nice wood on all of mine except my Springer that has elk horn on it.Yours looks pretty nice :smt023


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