I’ve done the following project many times to a 1911. I installed an ambidextrous thumb safety to a Kimber Stainless Steel II.
Technique as per MANY times, wrapped leather around the fore end of the frame, and placed it in my vice, snug but not over done. This keeps it put so I can work on it securely. I’ve done this many times, to SA’s, Colts, Rock Islands, ETC. After the job was done, I went to put the slide back on, and NO FIT!
Upon examination, one of the “lips” of the fore end is slightly BENT. WTF??? There was not nearly enough pressure, and what light tapping by a small rubber gunsmith’s mallet should not have employed enough force to bend these “lips”.
A quick measurement showed them inconsistent, meaning BENT.
Ok, I’ve STOPPED my work! Now I am scratching my head trying to figure out how to proceed.
I don’t want to pronounce such a fine 1911 as “JUNK”, but guys, I am seriously baffled as to HOW! Next is going to be what shall I do about it?
I live in an area where we don’t have “actual” gunsmiths. There is a guy who is a tinkerer like me who is an FFL and does “light gunsmithing”, but in being humble, I am just as good as he is. I’ve been playing with the 1911 on and off for 30 years, and never seen a frame’s metallurgy THAT soft.
I can’t help but feel disappointed. I’ve never had a Colt or a Springfield act like this, and I am not kidding when I say I tightened my vice JUST ENOUGH, and at the very tip of the fore end just to hold the frame in place to work on.
Anyone else have this issue with steel strength from a Kimber? I’ve never worked on a Kimber before, it’s MY pistol, so, I am not worried about it being someone else’s gun, but wow, the level of disappointment I feel is pretty high. So, this pistol now fully disassembled so I can go through it piece by piece to see if anything else is weird, it sits in a plastic zip lock bag until I “feel like messing with it”. I know better than to call Kimber, their CS has been fairly unreliable and “dickish”. So, I am on my own. This may end up a gun that lives in a plastic bag fr a few years until I can locate a real honest to God Gunsmith to work on it. I HATE using a Gunsmith though, I’ve always been able to work on my own guns, from a trigger job to fitting custom parts, to rust bluing. I am a hobbiest, this is what I do for fun.
Please keep responses limited to actual persons who have had this occurs, or other hobbiest gun tinkerers (Techy types) to or gunsmiths familiar with this sort of thing. Thanks guys.