Monday, August 03, 2009

Midway USA, Hooray!

On Friday, I ordered a 60-pitch grip bushing tap for the 1991, new bushings, shiny new, blued, slotted grip screws by Cylinder & Slide and a bushing driver, all from our friends at Midway USA; by this afternoon, I had them all and headed to the basement.

Out with all the old bushings, heap plenty oil, start that tap by hand! Cleaned out all the tapped holes in the grippy part of the frame, including the one that chews up bushings (and removed a few nasty chunks of metal on that one, popcorn-salt sized), taking out more rust than I expected. Wiped up the excess, cleaned out the threads with an oily pipe cleaner, installed the new bushings, the nice grips Og presented to me some months ago, and the new grip screws. Whattaya think? (Nice low serial number, hey?)

16 comments:

og said...

Sweetness! Glad the threads cleaned up nicely.

The Duck said...

Good job!! Least I know who to ask in case I have a problem ;-}

Carteach said...

VERY nice!

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Wow. That's just purty.

(wv: doless. How Randian.)

sam said...

To amplify (snicker) what Nathan said, "Pert 'near as purty as Bobbi."

What they don't have a serial number for null?

WV: bomfro

Explosive scene from a '70's blackspoitation movie?

Turk Turon said...

Beautiful, beautiful!

JAFO said...

SEX-AY....

I've got one myself-- if that's the original finish I am about 15,000 kinds'a jealous!

Mine's seen.. better days. I have one of the bushings glued in with LocTite red. Seems to be holding, thus far.

My weapon isn't stock-- it's been worked on- Kart NM barrel among other things. I see a duracoat session in the near future- not sure if it'll be FDE or OD frame, with black slide.

JAFO said...

Oh yeah-- thoughts on sending her out for a melt job? :P

Anonymous said...

It looks good.

Jim

Loose Gravel said...

I love tap stories that don't end with "... and then I went in search of an EDM shop..."

Sharp looking bit of firepower!

Ritchie said...

If you didn't already know...

Argentine Colt Sistema Model 1927, .45 ACP Pistol
Production Dates

The information below is from
www.renar.gov.ar/cursos/expertos/notaa/arm_hist.htm, on 07/27/2001.
However, this page is no longer posted. Therefore, I have typed the
information, verbatim, below in green. Please keep in mind that this page
was translated by Google from Spanish to English. The [?] indicates
unknown; I typed what it printed.

"The Semiautomatic Pistol Colt "System" Argentine Model 1927, Caliber 11.25
m/m, produced by the Main Directorate of Defense Ind[?] Factory of Portable
Arms "Domingo Matheu".

In one first delivery we will put to consideration of the Legitimate Users
who have a one of these emblematic arms information little will help to
establish the year of manufacture of this material.

With a number of 88,494 units made from 1945 to 1966 beginning by the serial
number of 24,001 (without counting special series), the semiautomatic pistol
perhaps represents on of the best productions of our armera industry that is
also reflected in the important su[?] as demanding markets as the one of the
U.s.a. where important amount so these arms in Surplus "condition" were
exported. He is possible to brief then the year, the respective production
and the serial numbers that includes this production with data of FMA.

YEAR SERIES N° PRODUCTION
(Year made, number produced that year, and serial number range is my best
guess.)

Year Made Number Produced Serial Number Range
1945 6,000 24.001 - 30.000
1946 7,628 30.001 - 37.628
1947 5,000 37.629 - 42.628
1948 7,000 42.629 - 49.628
1949 5,000 49.629 - 54.628
1950 8,000 54.629 - 62.628
1951 8,011 62.629 - 70.639
1952 7,016 70.640 - 77.655
1953 2,500 77.656 - 80.155
1954 5,000 80.156 - 85.155
1955 2,500 85.156 - 87.655
1956 2,500 87.656 - 90.155
1957 5,626 90.156 - 95.781
1958 5,547 95.782 - 101.328
1959 5,000 101.329 - 106.328
1960 2,066 106.329 - 108.394
1961 1,000 108.395 - 109.394
1962 0
1963 600 109.395 - 109.994
1964 750 109.995 - 110.744
1965 1,250 110.745 - 111.994
1966 500 111.995 - 112.494
Total: 88,494 units









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Page last updated 24 August 2007.

Ritchie said...

Just to clarify, everything below (...) is pasted from another web site.

Roberta X said...

Thanks, guys!

Retapping the threads is mostly a matter of using a lot of light oil and starting the tap by hand -- without a T-handle or anything. The last one was the fiddliest, tap didn't want to start on it and thought I was going to end up regretting not having left well enough alone. But then it caught. The threads of the three non-problematic tapped holes all yielded up a bit of rust but that's the only part of the gun I hadn't opened up and cleaned when I first bought it, so I hope I've got it all.

Got the numbers, Ritchie, and thank you. Mine was made in '48, it appears.

JAFO, that is the original finish as nearly as I can tell. I bought the gun at an Indy 1500 show for $350 (having recognized it as an apparently-unhacked Sistema in the seller's case), discovered the sear nose was chipped and the wide hammer was a littler "bitey" and proceeded to install a Cylinder & Slide kit: hammer, sear, disconnector and springs. It's very pleasant to shoot.

I may look into a new barrel and I am still undecided about the (stock) sights.

Drang said...

Blogger Sam said...
"WV: bomfro
Explosive scene from a '70's blackspoitation movie?"

Nonsense.

Mind you, I didn't think Roberta was that kind of anarchist, but...

Ed Skinner said...

Black Beauty with brown riding leather. Very nice!

Tango Juliet said...

Looks good from here!