maintenance and cleaning of norinco 1911

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Guy-Smiley

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First of all, I am a new member to Gun Nutz and this is my first post.

Everyone here seems very knowledgeable and helpful.

I just purchased a Norinco 1911 through the CanAm combo deal.

My piece hasn't arrived yet, but I hear there is a lot of grease and oil and such.

One post indicated that he boiled the parts in water to loosen all the grease.

I am looking for helpful info regarding the cleaning I should be doing out of the box.

Also, if anyone knows some great cleaning products that I should use let me know.

looking forward to your thoughts on this ;)
 
I used mineral spirits... Just field strip the gun, take off the grips, and soak her for a few hours.

Then blow off all the crud with compressed air!
 
Mine wasn't too greasy, to be honest. Probably usable right out of the box, but at least a field strip and wipe down is always recommended for any new gun. Make sure you clean the barrel inside and out.

Decide whether you want to learn how to do a complete disassembly or not. You should, in my opinion, but not everyone is up for it. Review video tutorials online while you wait for the pistol to arrive. You do not need a bushing wrench, though a small punch may be useful (and a small vise with soft jaws if you want to disassemble the mainspring housing). You don't actually need a cleaning kit, as the pistol includes a bore brush, but it's never a bad idea to have a "real" cleaning rod, jag, and brush.

Simple Green - type degreasers are best, IMO. Brief soak followed by a good brushing with a stiff nylon-bristle brush, followed by a hot/boiling water rinse. The heat from the hot water will help the parts dry quickly on their own. Steel is steel, though, and it will start to corrode immediately after this sort of cleaning, so get it dry and re-lubed right away.

If you use brake cleaner, keep it far far away from any plastic parts (grips).
 
Welcome aboard, I clean oil off with var sol, or other mineral spirits. an old toothbrush helps, but I don't see a need to boil the parts.
 
Watch the videos on field stripping and assembling a 1911 on You Tube. There's many dozens of them so it's not hard to find a couple of the better ones.

For most of the stuff a wipe down with a cloth that has a little mineral spirits on it or pretty much any gun cleaner solvent will do fine. To avoid having to totally strip it down a can of brake cleaner from Lordco can be used to hose out the disconnector, sear and hammer area if you punch out the base pin and remove the mainspring housing. Again You Tube is your friend here on how to remove the base pin for the MSH. You'll need to direct the spray between the fingers of the three finger spring but if you hose it out, let it sit a few seconds then hose it again and drain it you should see most of the brownish grunge wash out. Do follow that up with a liberal amount of gun oil dribbled into the area and then let the excess drain out to ensure you coat ALL the surfaces in that area. The brake cleaner will totally strip away ALL protection and any such dry spots are at risk of rusting if left.

Myself, I'm a fan of the easy to make up Ed's Red for this sort of general cleaning and protection. It's a "soup" of solvents and ATF. Once the solvents dry away the ATF is left to provide rust protection and some lubrication properties. It's a great general purpose gun cleaning solvent for this reason. But I also keep a couple of other things around for specific needs as well. The Ed's Red can be sucked up into a little eye dropper like squeeze bottle then shoot the mix out to flush the area. Catch the drainage and pour it back into the can or jar you use to store the Ed's Red mix as the particles will settle to the bottom and the mixture is still useable for some time.

For lubrication you can use pretty much any gun oil. Some folks have their favourites that might last a little longer but really if you just keep the slide rails, barrel nose and lugs and the hammer reset track of the slide lightly oiled and touch these spots up regularly as they shoot "dry" you'll be fine. Some folks like to use a LIGHT smear of grease on the slide rails and on that hammer reset track. I've been using some Castrol Syntec full synthetic grease for this for a while now and it is working nicely and stays in place well. Again you want a THIN smear of any grease. Cake it on too thick and it can act like a brake (think waving your hand around in air vs waving it around underwater in a pool).
 
That's awesome info!!!
Soaking in boiling water didn't seem right. In army we were taught water and weapons don't mix well.
Thanks again!
When it comes in ill throw some pictures up.
Did any of you guys mod it? Is the norinco a good base to upgrade on?
 
The Norinco is an excellent base to upgrade on if you want a shooter that you're going to keep. If you're looking to sell in the near future you won't likely get your money back out of it.
 
Guy-Smiley said:
That's awesome info!!!
Soaking in boiling water didn't seem right. In army we were taught water and weapons don't mix well.
Thanks again!
When it comes in ill throw some pictures up.
Did any of you guys mod it? Is the norinco a good base to upgrade on?
Click to expand...

There are 2 times when you need to boil water to clean a gun, the first is to remove Cosmoline from an arsenal rebuilt gun that has been sent to war stores (long term storage). Cosmoline has the consistency of Vaseline when fresh and hardens to a wax when left for years. The second is after firing corrosive ammunition, in order to get rid of the corrosive salts from the priming compound. Beyond that, you're good. The Norinco isn't shipped in Cosmoline and 45 auto isn't corrosive primed, so no worries. As far as the Norinco 1911 goes, they're a great basis for a custom gun, you won't find a longer lasting, harder wearing 1911 frame and slide.
 
Got mine today and had it range ready in about 15 minutes. No boiling water, kerosene, mineral spirits, or field stripping was needed.
Wiped the outside with a paper towel to get the gooey stuff off. Wiped again with a paper towel soaked in nitro solvent.
Another wipedown with paper towel sprayed with WD-40.
Ran some solvent soaked patches through the bore and then with WD-40.
Didn't beak into the new box of ammo, used about 20 rds. Norinco ammo from a previous order and about 25 rds. of handloads.
Out of the first five shots fired, one of the Norinco brass was mangled, none after that.
Less than fifty shots fired tonight, but there were no FTE or FTF.
Shooting from 10yds., using a 6 o'clock hold, got them in the black(3 1/2") , from a rest.
 
trebor2880 said:
Got mine today ...Wiped the outside with a paper towel ...Wiped again with a paper towel soaked in nitro solvent.
Another wipedown with paper towel sprayed with WD-40....Ran some solvent soaked patches through the bore and then with WD-40.

Out of the first five shots fired, one of the Norinco brass was mangled, none after that.
Less than fifty shots fired tonight, but there were no FTE or FTF.
Shooting from 10yds., using a 6 o'clock hold, got them in the black(3 1/2") , from a rest.
Click to expand...


Nice! I am also a fan of paper towels and WD-40 for cleaning grease, then using G96 for general lubrication [NOT WD-40 for lubrication].
How's the trigger on your gun? I got a notice at 1AM this morning that my shipment is on the way... I'll probably flip the pistol, but I'll clean it up first.
 
i honestly use kerosene to do major degreasing and plenty of it - it's cheap, you can buy the 10L jug that'll last a long time, and it's very handy for cleaning & degreasing other stuff too. and as fuel for a kerosene lamp if you have one at your cottage or in your back yard.

as for normal cleaner / lube / protectant for my guns, i use "Ed's Red" (i think that's what it's called), which is a 'custom' mixture of stuff. works quite well. for slide rails specifically, i've used full-synth Motomaster grease (canadian tire black/gold cartridge with red grease inside) and also ViperLube (which is made by the LocTite people - i have a large cartridge of it)
 
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