Working over my Springfield TRP... Pix [Archive]

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madryan

12-13-12, 00:51

So I got this a while back. Great pistol but the armory cote or whatever rubs off all the sharp edges fairly quickly and I'm a freak when it comes to wrenching on 1911's anyway.

So I decided to give it the full treatment as a project for kicks.

I picked up a complete ignition kit via Cylinder and Slide, 10-8 Slide stop and Mag release, EGW single side Safety and OS firing pin stop, Wilson Grip Safety, and a standard MSH. I also snagged some square bottom VZ's with a pin cutout so I could contour them to my liking.

Aside from installing all the relative drop in stuff, I'm doing a full roundover treatment to the full gun. I love it when the whole pistol feels like a bar of soap. No sharp edges anywhere except the checkering. I trued up some of the lines on the frame and rounded the butt. Since the TRP's come with a magwell I also needed to bevel the frame.

Here's some pix...

Note the gap where the stock tangs are slightly undercut. I'm not a total fit freak so I'm not worried but were this a govt. spec where I were cutting the tangs myself that'd be unacceptable.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/02734665-099A-4582-B869-190CB65C6C17-11292-000007EF4216872D.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/E923031E-66BF-4477-917B-60182A5AC9CB-11292-000007EF56968BB2.jpg

It's really hard to see with the lighting because I didn't get to blast the slide yet. The radius on the front of the slide is a nice uniform radius much like what's all over the frame but the frame, being blasted is much easier to see.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/854245D4-A778-44E9-B16D-BD9D419386EE-11292-000007EF5286136F.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/A60C91A8-5820-4DC0-AE07-ECA07BD7CF0C-11292-000007EF4EB6ABD4.jpg

Here's an early shot of the butt before I blended the frame.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/31F7E89D-D0E3-4556-8016-7747A33CEB77-11292-000007EF76037C44.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/2C124E09-07B7-4918-BB7B-A60E09492EC9-11292-000007EF47047756.jpg

Now I need to pick a color to get it finished. It's purely a fighting gun. I'm thinking black cerakote.

M4Fundi

12-13-12, 02:23

I think Dave Williams would be proud of what you did to his gun;)

madryan

12-13-12, 02:44

You can kinda plot the progress based on whether there's still coating or whether there's still sharp edges. It's been 3 or 4 years since I had a chance to work over a 1911 and it's really quite enjoyable. The TRP is a pretty nice pistol out of the gate but it needed the oversized FP stop for sure and I hate ambi safeties.

I couldn't care less if my pistol has a magwell or not since I carry and have never had a problem reloading a standard govt. model.

I'm seriously liking the dark grey heavy blast with oil on it color though. I may go a bit darker than that for cerakote.

I do dig the VZ's alot. I rounded them so they're not quite flat but not traditional looking.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/C7E43DCE-73CA-4764-8F27-8A16EC5A454A-11292-000007EF61C50E7B.jpg

ReaperAZ

12-13-12, 06:07

That looks great! Wish I had the skill to do the same on my TRP. Love the rounded edges!

M4Fundi

12-13-12, 16:28

Me too, I've always wanted to do up my own, but need to go thu a LAV or Ned C. class before I will have the cajones to do it. I wish John Harrison would do a class. I like alot of his stuff.

Looks really nice!

jbasas13

12-13-12, 22:13

Looks great! Can't wait to pick up a 1911

MoCop

12-14-12, 09:33

Looks good! I like what you did to the VZ's.

madryan

12-16-12, 19:12

So here's a few new pix. It's pretty much done. I can get it refinished early next month when I get paid. I'm all done carving on it though. I went ahead and fitted an extra Wilson extractor so when the stock one craps out I've got another all ready to go without having to worry about marring the finish.

The finished rounded butt. Went a bit flatter...

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/IMG_0707_zps0f542a0d.jpg

Here's what I did with the frame. You can't see the radius on the bottom of the slide all that well but it's a nice even break all the way across on both sides. The light makes it look kinda weird. I trued up that line above the trigger guard so it'll look straight when refinished and rounded everything. I also straightened that ugly double hump thing they do above the checkering.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/IMG_0706_zpsdfa75bc8.jpg

Here you can see more or less (lighting again) the radius on the front of the slide and the front of the dust cover. It's really consistent and straight where the dust cover used to look sorta rounded and crooked because someone just beveled it with a belt sander. I trued it up.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/IMG_0705_zpsfe057862.jpg

In this pic you can see the Wilson beavertail. I didn't do anything about the undercut tangs because frankly it doesn't bother me. I did however bevel and cut the beavertail so that when it's pushed in the radiuses come down and meet the frame on the lower part and the upper part is all true and straight when it's out. You can kinda see that in this pic... EGW safety is IMO the best I've ever fitted. This also shows the slightly flatter butt.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/IMG_0704_zps74f79046.jpg

imperials

12-19-12, 21:47

Wish I had the skill to do that! Looks good!!!

vereceleritas

12-20-12, 19:54

Nice work. What do you use to round off the edges of the slide and frame? Just sandpaper and elbow grease?

madryan

12-20-12, 21:48

Nice work. What do you use to round off the edges of the slide and frame? Just sandpaper and elbow grease?

I usually hit it with a needle file first to do the bulk of the heavy lifting then varying degrees of sandpaper. Wet/Dry sandpaper with windex on it works awesome. You can true up the straight edges with a flat surface and a sheet of 360 grit wet/dry and get really nice blended radii.

I went with a pretty heavy break on most of it. Whatever was appropriate for the part. Some of it looks better with less, some better with more.

Here's 3 recent pix of the frame...

It's hard to tell by the pix but there's a fairly heavy break, probably .02 on the back of the grip that extends clear up to the beavertail. It feels wonderful in the hand. I also relieved the grip to clear my thumb during mag changes.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/E3C2DF44-545C-4FBE-9014-A3550CBE60E9-4550-00000322BB6277DF.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/E0090203-0E22-4C46-B2EA-05FA14C54492-4550-00000322A73AE034.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f296/madryan/E17808B3-F140-4417-9407-7D9F31F750A0-4550-000003229589BC62.jpg

decodeddiesel

01-03-13, 23:41

interfan

01-04-13, 17:56

Nice work. My wife would hang me if she caught me doing any metal work over a sink in the house!

madryan

01-04-13, 20:25

Great at home "1911-smithing"! Your work reminds me a lot of what I had done with my previous 1911, similar parts, similar metal removal. :moil:

I love seeing projects like this unfold in pictorials.

Here's the finished product...

Linkey Linkey (https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=120354)