Most anyone with an understanding of the 1911 and some tools can assemble a pistol.
Here's some advice:
Start off by buying a copy of the Jerry Kuhnhausen book "The Colt .45 Automatic: A Shop Manual, Volume One".
JERRY KUHNHAUSEN THE COLT .45 AUTOMATIC - Brownells
This is a manual that was written for use as a training aid for new gunsmiths. It's all new info, not just reprints of the usual old GI Ordnance manuals.
It shows everything about how to disassemble, reassemble, fit new parts, trouble shoot why parts aren't functioning, and some custom work.
This is the best book on 1911 gunsmithing there is.
There are no jack leg methods here, all the information is how Colt does it.
There is a Volume Two, which covers the actual blue prints and specs of each part. Volume One is the most useful.
Get a copy of the Brownell's catalog. It's the best "gun stuff" catalog in the world and sells all the tools you might need for building, including the best parts.
When buying a slide and frame it's usually better to buy them from the same maker. While most slides and frames "should" be compatible, there are variations that can cause problems. Many makers also sell pre-fitted slide and frame combos. Brownell's sell some good ones or you can check with the manufactures for other options Brownell's doesn't stock.
For your first build don't try for a Match fit slide and frame. Attemping to get the fit right and the gun working can be a problem even for an experinced builder.
On parts, buy only better quality parts from name brand makers.
These will not only be higher quality, they'll be closer to Colt specification and more uniform.
Colt established the specifications and military makers followed them to the letter. Current makers follow whatever specs they want so there will be variations, especially on cheaper parts.
The cheap no-name parts sold as 1911 kits, or from gun shows or Shotgun News are made of lower quality cast steel and are ALWAYS out of specification in some areas.
Attempting to build a working gun with out of spec parts makes fitting and getting assemblies to operate correctly very difficult when parts aren't in spec and the mis-fit "stacks" with each incorrect part. That makes it really tough to diagnose why something isn't fitting or working when you have a number of parts, each slightly incorrect and the mis-fit gets worse as each out of spec part is added.
For your first build I recommend NOT attempting a gun with custom features like Match fit slides and barrels, custom grip safeties, Match sights, or very light triggers.
Make your first build a more or less stock gun similar to a military or Colt commercial Government Model.
Keeping it simple for the first time will teach you how the 1911 fits together and functions. Attempting to add custom parts that require alterations to fit makes it much harder figure things out.
What you want do is learn the gun before attempting to complicate things.
Attempting to figure out how to build a gun while at the same time altering things to have custom features can make it too easy to ruin expensive parts.
A common mistake on a first build is trying to get a Match quality trigger. This almost always leads to ruing hammers and triggers and problems like safeties that don't work correctly or hammers that drop to half cock when the slide closes.
One rule of gunsmithing is to KNOW exactly what a problem is BEFORE altering parts. Too often just shooting blind in an attempt to get something to work just ruins parts or even guns.
Keeping your first build simple will teach you how to diagnose and correctly fix problems.
Then, after you have a properly working gun you can either build a gun with all the custom features, or you can modify the working gun you have into the custom gun you want.
In short, buy good quality parts and "keep it simple stupid" the first time.
After you know what you're doing you can build more elaborate guns.


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