I've had this one for seven years. I wasn't looking for another 1911, but the quality/price ratio was great, so I couldn't pass it up. I put a few hundred rounds through it and stuck it in the safe and there it remained until recently. I'd gotten bored and needed a project and it was too nice a pistol to go to waste. So, I decided to enhance its shootability without going overboard. I wanted the look of a vintage, mid-20th century custom job.
To start, I replaced the rear sight with a retro Yost-Bonitz style unit, currently manufactured by John Harrison of Harrison Custom. I wanted a gold bead on the front sight, as it's classic. It's also still one of my favorite front sights. After one failed attempt to find a sight with the proper dovetail, I sent the original sight off to John and had him install a gold bead.
I had an old unused Wilson Combat thumb safety knocking around my parts box, so on it went. The color doesn't match the rest of the gun and it's actually gone a bit plumb in color. To all of us oldsters, that looks vintage too.😉 the pistol is very nicely finished overall. The only part showing any finishing errors was the slide stop, which exhibited a few machining marks on its surface. Every time I picked the pistol up my eye was drawn to it, so the original was replaced with an Ed Brown part.
I wanted to install an arched mainspring housing with a lanyard loop, to enhance the vintage look. I didn't have one in the eight or ten housings on hand that mated up well with the frame. In the end I went with a flat, checkered Wilson housing that matched the frame as if it was made for it. My hand prefers flat anyway.
Finally, I added grips from Wood Caliber, made from English Walnut, with ebony inlays. I was going for vintage understated, utilitarian class if you will. I think I succeeded. Shoots pretty well too.