Don't leave me alone with a rum and coke, polishing wheel, airbrush and a fugly Kimber 1911.
A little history here: I bought this Kimber on the cheap as a carry piece a couple years ago. Before I learned to truely appreciate a LIGHT pistol for carry purposes. I ended up replacing it primarily due to the lack of an ambi safety which I felt would impair my use of said firearm in a life or death situation. I'm left handed.
So, I bought another gun and threw this one in the glovebox. After several years of disuse, I pulled it out to clean it and found some very minor tarnishing on the hammer and barrel.
As this happened to coincide with the unusual consumption of Bacardi 8 and Coke I disassembled it and took the offending parts to my buffing wheel in the shop. Well, what started out as a quick cleanup job turned into a full blown polishing extravaganza. I polished everything... and polished it good. I was starting to sober up right around the time I started putting it back together. You can imagine how my excitement began to fade as I realized I had given birth to a weapon perfectly at home on the hip of a Puerto Rican crack dealer.
Damn. Bling.
****. I hate bling.
So, I started digging through my bins of parts and paint... sketching a plan in my head to tone down the monster I had made under the influence caffine spiked rum.
I ordered an ambi safety from Kimber and added a set of rosewood grips and a steel mainspring housing to replace that shameful plastic bit on the lower end Kimbers.
I found a bottle of matte black Duracoat in my basement and set out to make amends to the tasteful pistol Gods.
A couple of my friends still think it looks pretty bad, but I will resist and say that I kind of like it. If I ever get really tired of it, I'll send out the slide and have it bead blasted.
I didn't have the heart to photograph the poor thing in it's fully polished state. So, you'll have to make due with before and after photos:
