My goal for the M1911A1...
 

This is what I want the Remington Rand M1911A1 to look like... (top gun)... if possible...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301357924.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301357940.jpg

Brewing beer won't kill you though Art so be REAL careful with these brews. I have scorched my sinuses a few times. A lot of these chems smith's work with it nasty stuff. Plenty of ventilation is essential.

Ok so now I have one for you. A guy brought a little .25 cal Walther sem-auto to the shop today for repair. Sometimes it won't fire and sometimes it just slam fires the whole clip. Ask me how I know. Scared the ****e out of me. So ....how do you get the sucker apart? I used the usual walther procedure of ..lift out the trigger ring and slide and lift the slide rearward. Didn't work. Help me out here brother.

Man those are nice looking pistols pal.

David,
Is this the Walther that you're referring to?

Walther Model 4

No it looks more like the Ortiges/ Duetche Werk you had.

This is it...http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301359419.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301359434.jpg

David,
Here's some info on the Model 8...

Historic Firearm of the Month, March 2000

More pics...
 

Here are my two WWII Remington Rand M1911A1's. The darker of the two is the one that was horribly re-blued and is being re-Parkerized...
The "nicer" of the two...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362250.jpg

The "basket case"... you can see the slide is banged up in one section just below the ejection port...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362276.jpg

My Star PD in .45ACP and My S&W 645 in .45ACP...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362315.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362334.jpg

More pics... I'm on a roll...
 

Three of my friend's M1911A1's are featured in the Clawson book (the book is $1000!)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362549.jpg

Stevens 520-30 trenchgun that we just sold...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301362607.jpg

Read this!!
Unbelievable find...
1902 Military Model - Colt Forum

Wow! Just sitting in the store all these years. Wow!

Hmmm...I tried that method and it didn't work for me. I must not be using the right cuss words. I'll try again on friday when I go to the shop again. Damn thing is cute and you can see the PP in it. Scared the hell out of me though. Thank God I was pointing down range with I racked the slide. It was like a tiny machine gun.

Wow! I've heard of that happening on Jennings pistols, but I've never seen it myself.

I didn't EVEN have my finger on the trigger! Unless I can fix it, I will have to give this little thing a black flag to it's owner. too bad it's a cute little bugger. I'm hoping it's just crud inside once I get in there. I would hate to see it go to the band saw.

Wow! I'd be interested in seeing pictures of what you find. I'm sure you'll be able to fix it. Most of the problems I've seen with pistols (semi-autos) have been due to poor ammo (Russian steel-cased garbage), poor internal springs, weak mag springs or poor quality after-market mags. A good cleaning, oil/grease and good ammo and mags have fixed every pistol I've worked on. I really enjoy getting these guns back into shape, it's very challenging and rewarding (not financially, though).

The Internet provides me with all the information I need to get up to speed quickly on a particular pistol and learn about it's mechanisms and common issues.

Art,

Thanks. After watching the videos (yep, all seven) I have a better idea of what was going on.
If I am not mistaken, that was a cosmetic restoration of a gun that had had a piss poor prep job done on it to prepare for bluing (being a USArmy pistol it had been Parkerized to start with?).

It was interesting to see the screw that that had been used to replace a lost pin. Looks like something I would have done, but at least, from this thread, I now know to use a drill bit shank. ;)

Thanks for your patience.
Les

Drill bit shanks are great because they incremental in size and hardened already. They work great. My little 08 Colt .25 was given to me disassembled in a coffee can full of motor oil. It was all there but the pins, which are unobtainable. Every pin in it now was a drill bit at one time.

Well Art. I got it apart. Careful inspection revealed that the lug on the trigger ring, inside the frame had sheared off and was rattling around inside. Once I fished it out it came apart as described. However it needs a trigger ring, the take down latch, pin, and spring. All these parts are close to unobtainable.
I may just offer him $50.00 for it (that's what the state police would pay him for it) and hope that someday I will find the correct parts. You never know.

Hello David,

If you obtain the Walter, I would be happy to machine up new parts for it. I am coming to the States in 2 weeks and will be here for several weeks. You can send it to a local FFL (We'll figure that out) and I will ship it back to you with the old and new parts. Let me know.

That is a generous offer my friend. Actually I would like to meet you. Where are you going to be? For how long? I will let you know if the walther comes to me and we can go from there. Thanks!