Colt Defender Project!

A little backstory before we begin!

I was given this gun as a "gift". And by "gift" I meant I likely had to do some sort of un-desireable work in trade and of course the gun did not function. I knew about the function issues before I acquired it. No idea what I did for the prior owner, as it was quite a while ago.

This was one of the filthiest guns I have ever seen. According to the prior (and original) owner, he kept it under the seat of his truck, presumably with a selection of filthy rags, potting soil, grease and probably whale spunk.

After a through and complete disassembly, I cleaned the gun. Lets just say the small parts in the trigger area looked like one big black snot ball. The slide was heavily scratched, sights were rusty, and the frame was extra nasty, covered in sticky stuff (whale spunk?). Straight simple green and my wife's toothbrush did the lion's share of the work. Ruined a few of the wife's hand towels as well.

I wish I had taken a picture of it before cleaning, but I can imagine it would have offended the sensibilities of the delicate forum member, so just use your imagination.

Here are a few after pics:

From the description I’d say it came out damn fine.


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As the eagle eyed viewer will notice, I have already begun to mod this cool little pistol.

Originally I was just going to clean it up and trade it off for something more to my taste. Don't get me wrong (or right) I do like the 1911 platform. But JD you may say, you are only 40, how could you possibly like a 1911? Well, I like mechanically different types of guns, not for actual use, just to study their operation. And the 1911 is certainly a grand daddy when it comes to auto loading pistol design. Plus I do like to shoot 45 acp ammo, and the all-metal single stack 45 guns just fit my hand and shooting style. This covers the 1911, 4506 S&W, and the sig 220. All are dated when considering capacity, materials and design, but I still like them. And I will be old soon enough, and then it will be ok to have 1911s, just as long as I don't say I got them when I was in my 20s...

So I ran a few rounds through the defender, after I purchased a few mags, this gun did not even come with a mag... I did not even try to put a regular gov't length mag in the gun, and I am not sure if that works or not, will have to try later. I never even though about it to be honest... Gun runs well, and at that point I figured that I did not have an officers size 1911, so I could add it to the collection.

The sharp edge at the back of the frame was a reason that I was originally going to move it on. After deciding to keep the Defender, I wanted to do a bobtail conversion (I have a few commanders with that feature and like them quite a bit). So I delved into the internet and found that a real bobtail was not going to happen. The way a gov't grip sized gun frame is converted to a bobtail is to use a new manufacture mainspring housing that is drilled to accept an officer length mainspring, and has the cross pin cut at the same location as an officers frame, so 1/4 inch or so higher than the std cross pin hole on a gov't frame. That allows for the bottom of the frame to be cut away quite a bit. That cannot be done on an officer frame. So after more research it appears that most seem to just radius the bottom of the frame to match a rounded butt officers mainspring housing. I was ready to purchase such a mainspring housing from Wilson, when my search led me to a thread by Ned Christensen (might have spelled that wrong) where he radius-ed the frame and just trimmed the bottom of the factory colt mainspring housing. So I took the gun apart and at that point realized that the colt mainspring housing is actually polymer, not aluminum or steel. As these polymer housings can be had on ebay for 15 bucks or less, I figured I could at least prototype the shape on it and if I did not like the result I was not out of much and could just buy a replacement. Mr Christensen did a very nice job on his so I was confident that I could produce a decent result.





Not the best or worst, and I do plan to smooth my file marks out a bit more before having the frame cerakoted. To be perfectly honest (do you expect anything less?) I am not overly thrilled with the finish quality on this cast? aluminum frame. There are quite a few remnants of the casting process, and it does not appear to have been tumbled or de-burred very well before it was anodized or coated. Typical Colt quality I guess.... Maybe they could make a nice anaconda back in the day, but everything I have seen since the 70s strike was lackluster, especially compared to a S&W gun. I digress.

So I am planning to ease over all of the sharp edges on the frame, and clean up all of the "oopsies" that colt missed. Not sure what color to coat it, suggestions would be appreciated. Leaning towards a darker gray, and don't really want black.

I also swapped out the grips. I plan to shoot the gun, and I like the newer polymer type grips on this gun. These are strike industries, they were well priced, and required quite a bit of work to install (I knew about the first part but did not know about the second). Turns out that the fat stock grips (which felt like a slippery landscape timber) use std grip bushings. The strike grips need low profile bushings. While colt did not bother to do much spit and polish on this gun, they sure did stake those bushings in well. I would have had to drill them out, and likely clean up the threads in the frame, all while being careful not to fuzz up the aluminum. So I made a thickness gauge and milled them down to the appropriate height. Yet again i figured this work would either go well, or I would just have to remove the stock bushing and get low profiles, so no harm either way. I chased the threads after milling and found some allen head screws to trim down to fit. I also have to turn the heads smaller to fit the grips. Strike really should include screws with these grips, might explain the low cost. I still plan to get a nice set of stainless grip screws (polished allens or torx, I prefer torx to be honest).



These grips are an interesting shape, they are fatter at the bottom section but are thin at the top. Fit my hand well and they offer good grip with the texture.

One of my desires on this gun to to add some sort of traction to the front strap. Compared to the various other 1911s I have, this smooth strap just feels too slippery. I have checkered front straps before, and have the required files, but this frame is very thin at the front and I would prefer not to cut into it. I was thinking stipling, but I am not sure how to go about that on aluminum. Plenty of info on stipling steel, but I have not found a suitable pic and description yet for aluminum. I was thinking I could use a automatic center punch to displace material, and even grind the tip to a sharp triangle or rectangle, as suggested in the steel stripling tutorials. Aluminum is much softer than steel, and this frame filed very easily, way softer than any of the 6061t6 and 7075t6 that I have worked with before. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Here is shot of the front strap. Not sure how far up to go, but I do plan to blend in the undercut portion of the frame more than colt did. The undercut is nice, but i am not sure where to stop the stipling to make it "look right"... back to google for image inspiration!

snipehunter7 said:

From the description I’d say it came out damn fine.


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Click to expand...

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words.

Looked at a bunch of pics of 1911 front straps that had been stipled. Looks like I just need to find a piece of aluminum and practice. I will post back pics and thought.

First thing I would do is blend everything and try my best to get rid of the massive scratches and dings near the trigger guard and front strap. Some front strap serrations or checkering would be nice.

Looks like a good candidate for a nitride bath.

DAVE_M said:

First thing I would do is blend everything and try my best to get rid of the massive scratches and dings near the trigger guard and front strap. Some front strap serrations or checkering would be nice.

Looks like a good candidate for a nitride bath.

Click to expand...

can aluminim be nitrided?

Yes, I plan to bend the front strap and bevel the sharp edges. All of the scratches are superficial, just in the anodized finish. I will likely blast it with light media before refinish.

jdindadell said:

can aluminim be nitrided?

Yes, I plan to bend the front strap and bevel the sharp edges. All of the scratches are superficial, just in the anodized finish. I will likely blast it with light media before refinish.

Click to expand...

Ah, no. I didn’t realize the frame was aluminum. You will have to find someone to Cerakote or Anodize the frame.

Nice and I like how you removed that hot spot on the lower grip. I've owned a few 1911s, still have one. John Browning was a genius. Simple, effective, and reliable mechanism.

Turned out nice. How's she shoot?
FWIW, Wilson makes an aluminum, drop in, checkered front strap. https://shopwilsoncombat.com/Frontstraps/products/47/
I kinda like having at least one tough looking, knock-around gun that performs well.