Just finished this 1955 vintage Colt Commander in 9x19 caliber. It was a kind of ratty base gun with a little pitting that took a good bit of block sanding, as well as roll mark restoration. It had a nice little gouge near the top rear of the slide that I had to weld up. The slide to frame fit was pretty rattly and installation of Acc-U-Rails is the best way to fix that on an alloy frame, plus it gives a steel-to-steel bearing surface for the slide to run on. I machined a pocket in the feed ramp and installed a steel frame feed ramp.
Accuracy potential was handled by a Kart barrel, EGW bushing & spring plug and a Harrison Design slide stop. The 9mm barrel really shows off the reverse cone crown with it's wall thickness being so big. The slide stop pin is cut flush & countersunk to the frame. The top of the slide is serrated 30 lpi around the radius. I machined a French border at the top of the flats, lowered and fluted the ejection port and machined a smallish bevel on the lower edge of the slide.
I fitted one of my HD-004-U rear sights with the U notch and a SDM dovetail front sight with the dovetail ends radiused to match the slide. A white bead set into the front sight blade completes the sight picture with contrasting color to the black sights. The rear of the slide is serrated 50 lpi to match the rear sight's serrations. I fitted one of my new H-D extractors and ejectors to go with the H-D firing pin stop and firing pin.
The ignition duties are performed by one of my "CC" ignition sets with the True Radius sear and Teardrop hammer. Together with a H-D strut, H-D short trigger and new springs; the trigger pull is now a creep-free 3.5 lbs. I used one of Wilson Combat's "Carry" beavertails and reduced the 'tail section a little bit. It swings on my Extreme Service thumb safety. I checkered a VZ Grips main spring housing 30 lpi with top & bottom borders and then Round-Butted the lower rear corner of the frame and MSH. I checkered the front strap 30 lpi with borders after raising the top radius for a high grip. A beveled mag well and Carry Bevel complete the custom work.
I used some American walnut blanks with especially nice figure to make the custom stocks with a hand-rubbed finish. A set of indexed slot grip screws with nitre bluing accents the stocks. The finish is 1500 grit polished flats on the slide with matte everywhere else all under a nice deep bluing job from Glenrock Blue. The alloy frame is Type III mil-spec anodized. Nitre blue pins hold it all together.
Now here's the pix -
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