customizing a 1911

[brybenn]

Forgive my ignorance but if one wanted to change the color of various parts on a 1911 such as the trigger, hammer, slide stop, safety, mag release, barrel bushing, grip safety etc could they be polished and coated and still fit a norinco or would the coating add to much thickness for proper fit? If possible what's the best coating? Powder coat paint or cerokote or...?
I'd like a satin silver or polished chrome look over a blued frame and slide.
Or is my best bet to source Wilson combat parts and settle for stainless?

 

[BCRider]

The problem is that you'd want to limit yourself to selected surfaces. Blued items don't change their size and the treatment is more into the surface than on it so it does not affect the frictional charateristics.

Paint or coatings on things like the hammer WILL affect how they move when it's on the various contact surfaces. And not in a good way.

Chrome plating adds to the surface thickness too. Proper clearances need to be there. If the frame to slide fit is already somewhat loose it may be fine to chrome one of them. Again for some of the parts it's not an issue. For other critical parts you'd need to have the plater only plate the exposed surfaces and not the parts that need to fit accurately.

Another option is that polished or brushed steel parts will stay nice and "steel" looking for years as long as you keep the surfaces oiled as per normal practice for a blued gun. So you COULD simply remove the bluing from the parts in question and finish them to some grade of treatment then oil them as normal.

Best to do the initial bluing removal with something like vinegar or a Birchwood Casey bluing remover solution. That way you're not removing material where critical by sanding the bluing off.

 

[bearhunter]

Get the parts you want changed powder coated. Let them know that it can't be applied to some surfaces and if the person running the shop knows their stuff and you are willing to pay for the extra time needed to do it right, all should be good.