Working over my Springfield TRP... Pix

**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.

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.

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

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.

**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...

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.

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.

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.