Super90Girl

Well, sorry to keep you all waiting, I expected to have the main parts back by now, but the guy who has been doing the frame and slide for me has sure taken his sweet time. I'm really quite disappointed as he originally said it would be about 2 weeks and has now been closer to 6 weeks. Apparently the work is now finished, but I have to wait until he's ready to "deliver" it to me, which he said would be Tues or Wed this week. We'll see, my confidence is already shaken.

Anyway, in the meantime, while waiting to get this thing back and hoping it is going to be up to my expectations, I thought I would post a pic of my other polished pistols for you. Here is my Colt Custom .38 Super, my Springfield Loaded Champion, and my Colt Mustang Plus II. The pic does not show just how shiny they really are. The Champion and Mustang are works in progress. I swear I am gonna break out my DSLR for the Ruger pics.

dolfin

why would you want to pollish it, it great looking the way it is,

Super90Girl

Well, first of all, this thread started with someone asking if anyone has polished or attempted to polish their SR1911. I am specifically responding to that question. Those of you who are not interested in polishing it, or seeing what a polished one looks like, then why are you here? Leave your gun just the way it is if you are happy with that. I am not saying the gun does not look fine stock out of the box. However, I usually like to customize my things, not just limited to guns. Some of my guns I leave totally stock. I have a fairly large gun collection, including an assortment of 1911's. The Ruger is one of my lower priced ones and seemed a good candidate for this project, especially since it has fairly flat sides and no forward serrations. I also own a S&W "E" Series full size 1911TA with the rail, that has a very similar finish to the stock SR1911. I plan on leaving it that way.

I am a far from ordinary person and I happen to like shiny guns, so I decided to do the polish on the Ruger "just because" I could (maybe I was bored with life as usual) and thought I could make it even better looking. We shall see once I have the parts back and reassembled with the new grips.

So why do we do the things we do? I guess because we are all different with different preferences. "Different strokes for different folks".

dubshooter

Like your lettering in your post?

I like the look of the polished guns. That picture above has some nice looking guns.

I like to polish my revolvers. I just use a rag and some mother's. I only have one 1911 now, and it's a workhorse, so it doesn't get polished. but when I pick up my SR1911 sometime in the next 5 years or so, it will probably get the mother's taken to it

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Ed Zachary

Is the guy doing the polishing on the SR1911 the same person who polished the Colts?
If so, it's going to be a real knockout.

Super90Girl

Lol, yes sort of like the lettering in my post. What can I say, it's a girl thing ?

I ♥ BLING !!!

No, the Colt Custom was done at the Colt factory. I just changed the grips and screws. I'm doing the polishing on the Champion and the Mustang. The guy who is doing the major parts of the Ruger...this is my first experience with him. I asked him if it came out well and his only reply was "it's pretty shiny". I have not heard from him as of yet since the weekend. Hopefully I get it back tomorrow. I'm not sure I will use him again as he has never once given me an update on the work (I have had to hound him each time), and now this little game in having to have it delivered back to me at his convenience.

jrprich

Well put, many of us really enjoy personalizing our toys.......it is just what we do.

hightechredneck123

Nice guns. I especially like the full size Colt.

Super90Girl

Ok, I'm needing to vent. I am SO ticked off right now. This guy has had my gun for nearly 2 months after he said it would take him around 2 weeks. He has never once offered an update on the work, I have had to go after him each time I wanted information. He informed me on Saturday, the 6th that it was finished, but he wasn't "working" that day (he gunsmiths out of his residence) and that he would deliver the gun to me on Tues or Wednesday. Today I texted him and asked if I was getting it back, and he told me he wouldn't be available until Friday now. Then he tells me the reason it has taken so long is because he was waiting from an email from Ruger regarding polishing the frame. He says Ruger told him not to do the frame because it would take it out of ATF compliance, presumably due to their cheap ass laser engraving. So now the frame has not been done, and I am going to have a polished slide on a matte frame. I could scream bloody murder. I am trying to contain myself because I am at work but I seriously want to destroy something. RUGER you suck!!! I will never buy another Ruger firearm for as long as I live. I HATE YOU! Take your cheap ass engraving and shove it! I am seeing red right now. And I HATE you, you jerk wanna-be gunsmith who told me one thing and did quite another. You think just because I am a woman I don't know squat, and you can jerk me around like this??!! I could out gunsmith and out shoot you any day of the week,

Thank you guys for letting me rant....

Super90Girl

LOL, sorry LAGun, didn't mean to offend anyone's delicate eyes. That did give me a chuckle though, and lightened my dark, murderous mood slightly. Just for the record, I could have gotten a lot worse than that. For crying out loud, we have Congressmen and Senators dropping the F bomb (note I didn't use the F word in my rant) on a daily basis and behaving like ghetto dogs.

LAGun

While we can only sympathise with your predicament and appreciate your need to vent we must keep it safe for the kiddo's and those more sensitive on the forum.

CdnInAz

So sorry to read that. I sort of wondered how a Smith would polish a cast frame. Can't blame Ruger, they sold a nice 1911 at a good price by using modern materials and processes to save some money.

Super90Girl

How much more effort would it have taken them to properly engrave the serial number rather than laser etching it? In my opinion, the laser etching can be too easily removed, so if that flies by ATF, then ATF is slacking on their compliance standards. I may just polish out the frame myself, avoiding the serial number, if I think it can be done. Thank you for your condolences.

Waveform

We are a better class of people than congressmen and senators.....

Is the issue the so-called "bill board" warnings that Ruger says "Thou shalt not remove"? If so then that is actually understandable from a purely legal standpoint - they are CYA warnings and we live in a litigous society. Your smith should have been more honest with you and told you what was happening a lot sooner. No excuses for him - that's pretty lousy on his part.

Ruger doesn't want the warnings removed for liability reasons. The gunsmith doesn't want to remove them for the same reason. You can remove them - it's your gun you can do whatever you want to it. But Ruger may refuse to work on it if you ever decided to send it to them for service. Not that you whould likely have to - it's a pretty standard 1911 and anybody can work on it, yourself included I'm guessing.

If it's the removal of the serial number then there may be legal ramifications - that has to remain no matter what you do. That's not Ruger's fault, that's the law and goes back to the ghetto dogs you mentioned.

I considered removing the "bill board" on one of my Ruger revolvers and called Ruger CS to see what they do if a gun comes back in without the warnings. I think I heard them gasp and clutch their pearls at the idea. So I didn't and polished it up "as is".

I like what you're trying to do with your SR1911 - I imagine it with pearl grips and looking like something Patton would own! I like to polish my revolvers too and I love classic nickel finishes. You just may have to move forward on your own at this point. Good luck and keep us posted.

Wave

Super90Girl

I believe it is a concern over the serial number and I know that has to stay there, I could give a rats behind about the rest of it. I saw how easy the etching came off the slide. If I think I can do around the serial number with a dremel polishing bit and a mini felt wheel, I will do the rest of the frame with the bench buffer. If I don't think I can do it, I will leave it the way it is, or at least leave the side flats untouched. Yes, I am mostly "ticked off" that this guy didn't communicate with me and waited til the last minute to let me know about this.