I went to visit my FFL buddy and he has a nickel plated Colt Cobra and some pimptastic gold plated 1911 parts out on his bench. Turns out a customer had him send the gun and parts off to be refinished, never came back for them and come to find out he’s passed away. The Cobra is the old style with unshrouded ejector rod; it has some pitting on one side of the barrel (under the nickel plate) and the nickel plating isn’t the greatest. Also the finish guy somehow missed the cylinder crane and cylinder latch so they’re still blue. Other than that it’s mechanically fine. My buddy offered it to me for a stupid low price and I’ve got it on loan to test it out. I’ve got a 642 so I don’t NEED it, but it would be a cool second snubby and an interesting companion for my Python.
So a few questions- anyone else own/carry a Cobra or Detective Special?
Recommend any good grips? For some reason I’m thinking grips are harder to find for the old style Colts.
What would you do about the finish? I’m not crazy about nickel and since it’s not original I’m guessing any collector value is shot anyway. I could live with it but mainly hate to have the two mismatched parts.