What started all this was the finish on my Para LTC was showing a bunch of rub threw from carry and I wanted to do something about the trigger pull and the grip safety. I first went after the trigger pull problem and replaced the trigger, the main & sear spring,and installed a series 80 trigger pull reduction kit. I did a bit of polishing on the trigger hoop and a few other places. All of that netted me a nice lighter but still firm trigger pull. This really tighted up my groups on the target even though I was rusty from not shooting for most of the winter.


After getting the trigger squared away I went after the grip safety. I ordered up an Ed Brown Memory Groove Beavertail. Now this is my first 1911 and I have only shot one other for a short period so I really didn't know how a properly fitted grip safety should feel and fit. Turns out Para did a really BAD job of fitting the original. You can see some of it in the photos that follow. When I went to install the new safety I discovered that the left and right cut outs on the frame were diffrent as far a depth of the arch was concerned. The right side was shallower and that was why I was having to death grip the sucker to get it to disengage. The radius was to shallow. Anyway the new safety required some grinding of the frame anyway as it moves your grip in and up as much as the gun will allow without weakening the frame. Wow do I love this new safety! While we are on the subject of safeties I screwed my right thumb up as a kid. I hyper extended it really bad. It healed but I can't extend it back as far as most people so I kind of have to crawl up on the thumb safety in order to ride it. I have to change my grip to flip it off. I came across a low ride safety and man does it make it easy to flip and ride from a correct hold for me.
Some other stuff I did was to detail the rear of the pistol were the slide and frame meet. The ejector, part of the frame rails, and the extractor stuck out so I smoothed and blended that all in.
Here is a picture of the gun when it was new. Take note of the grip safety:

This is a shot of how much I took off of the back of the pistol to fit the new safety The safety is fully depressed BTW.

Here is the new safety installed:

Lot of grinding, filing, snading, and polishing took place back here!

After I got everything the way I wanted it and smoothed out real pretty it was time for paint. I used Duracoat. The color is Rem Black and I used an airbrush to apply it. I've done some spraying with a full sized gun but this was my first time with an airbrush and it is a bit diffrent. The finish turned out pretty good but I could do better with some practice. I also laid it on pretty heavy because I don't want to do this again for awhile on this pistol anyway. I'm still waiting on my new grips to arive from Hogue. They are Rosewood laminate with a Dragonskin texture. Can't wait to see them on this pistol!!


Here's a close-up of the blending and the new safeties and slide stop.

All the goodies that went in to it: