[sharpshooter1997]

I have a buddy with a kimber 1911. He wants to change the mainspring housing, grip safety, saftey, slid release, beaver tail, grip skrews, and barrel bushing to stanliss steel. It all is coming from midwayusa and all the reviews say you need to fit the parts. Any body got addvise?

[bartwatkins]

Originally Posted by sharpshooter1997

I have a buddy with a kimber 1911. He wants to change the mainspring housing, grip safety, saftey, slid release, beaver tail, grip skrews, and barrel bushing to stanliss steel. It all is coming from midwayusa and all the reviews say you need to fit the parts. Any body got addvise?

You may get lucky with the msh, slide release and barrel bushing. But if the bushing fit is more loose than the original one, it will effect the gun's accuracy. If the msh fit is too tight, it is not terribly hard to do some filing and fit that - just be sure to take any material off the part itself (never the frame).
The beavertail grip safety & thumb safety are a different story. Those will likely take fitting by a gunsmith.

[trip286]

I doubt they'll have to be fitted. That's a catch all phrase used in case somethings not fitting just quite perfect. Most parts like he's ordering are drop in. unless he's going from a duck bill safety to a beaver tail. THAT actually involves some removing metal from the frame unless using a Wilson drop in. Oh, there may need to be some polishing in a small little spot where the trigger engages it.

Advice? When the parts come in, see if they fit... They should.

[HOSSFLY]

I try not to worry about the little things until they happen

[bartwatkins]

Originally Posted by trip286

I doubt they'll have to be fitted. That's a catch all phrase used in case somethings not fitting just quite perfect. Most parts like he's ordering are drop in. unless he's going from a duck bill safety to a beaver tail. THAT actually involves some removing metal from the frame unless using a Wilson drop in. Oh, there may need to be some polishing in a small little spot where the trigger engages it.

Advice? When the parts come in, see if they fit... They should.

Hmm - I guess that I was thinking of the radius of the grip safety that Springfield uses. I am not too familiar with Kimbers but I remember somewhere that if you are wanting to install a SA grip safety on another gun then the frame has to be modified to accept it due to the radius (but I may be off base here).

[trip286]

If anything, I believe Kimber would be the ones to use an odd radius. They're the ones who think they're oh so special, I could see that happening. And I'm not trying to knock them, I just think they're overpriced for what you get: a 1911 that's really no more special than any other, but they refuse to even talk to some people about warranty work until you've fired 500+ rounds to break it in (I'm a firm believer that all guns should run 100% straight from the box), and you better not even change the grips if you wanna hang onto that piddlin' little one year warranty (I'm also a firm believer
that a high end product should be warrantied for life, buck does it with their knives, why won't Kimber do it with $1000+ guns? A large majority of gun makers have a lifetime warranty).

But, the old GI style grip safety uses a different radius than beaver tail safeties, and I think almost all makers use "one or the other", and I don't THINK it's springfield that would use some strange proprietary radius.

(edit to add: I'll be changing mine up soon, so I guess I'll find out...I have a springer)

If he's putting a springfield beaver tail on a Kimber that currently has the old GI grip safety, he would need fitting regardless of the makers. Do they even make one that doesn't come with a beaver tail?

[Overkill0084]

When it comes to fitting new parts on a 1911, you will hear things like, "should fit," "May or may not need any fitting," "ought to be OK," & so forth.
Even if everything drops in and functions correctly, it's very likely that a bit of "fitting" or "tuning" will improve things. "Fitting/tuning" may only require a couple of strokes with a file. But that might make all the difference.
How much money is being spent here? Probably a couple hundred bucks. Assuming that these parts are intended to improve things, getting everything right might be worth a bit of extra time & effort.
"Hey, how big a deal can it be?"
Required reading for 1911 tinkerers: http://www.amazon.com/The-Colt-45-automatic-manual/dp/B0006EVYAU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361989377&sr=8-1&keywords=Kuhnhausen

[trip286]

Originally Posted by Overkill0084

When it comes to fitting new parts on a 1911, you will hear things like, "should fit," "May or may not need any fitting," "ought to be OK," & so forth.
Even if everything drops in and functions correctly, it's very likely that a bit of "fitting" or "tuning" will improve things. "Fitting/tuning" may only require a couple of strokes with a file. But that might make all the difference.
How much money is being spent here? Probably a couple hundred bucks. Assuming that these parts are intended to improve things, getting everything right might be worth a bit of extra time & effort.
"Hey, how big a deal can it be?"
Required reading for 1911 tinkerers: http://www.amazon.com/The-Colt-45-automatic-manual/dp/B0006EVYAU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361989377&sr=8-1&keywords=Kuhnhausen

And why haven't you chimed in on my thread, "1911 gunsmithing books"?

[Overkill0084]

Originally Posted by trip286

And why haven't you chimed in on my thread, "1911 gunsmithing books"?

Must have missed that one.

[Olympus]

I don't see why you'd pay a premium for a a Kimber and then pay even more money to change out half the parts and take a chance on the end result being sloppily fitting aftermarket parts. Seems pretty silly in my book. But that's just me.