[Underwhere]

SP01SHADOW inspired me before to take on a refinishing of a CZ and helped me tremendously throughout my experience. I figured I'd post up for others to see.

Here is my second build. It'll be quite a lot initially because I'm pretty much halfway through it.

The rest will be much slower as I only work on this at night.

Hopefully people can learn from this and also offer suggestions along my project. I'm always open to feedback and criticism.

Here goes.

I started with a Pre-b and disassembled it.
Soaked in Klean Aircraft stripper for several days and arrived at my phosphate finish.

No pics of the paint stripper. That's boring.

 

[Underwhere]

I started shaping the beavertail on the stripped frame.

Sorry for all the sideways pictures. It shows up fine when I upload it but it goes crazy when I post.

I cut a tab out of mild steel, used a file to flatten the current beavertail and TIG welded it on. Then I used a Dremel with sanding drums to rough shape it. I went back to the TIG maybe 20+ times over the course of 5 or 6 nights to get it to its final shape and finish.
View media item 48View media item 49View media item 50View media item 51View media item 52View media item 53

 

[Underwhere]

Next I worked on the squared trigger guard.

I marked it with a sharpie to make sure I maintained a flat edge to it and filed and ground away. This took about 2 nights and I had to use the welder because there was a cavity in the casting of the frame that needed to be filled.

Once a got the shape down I shoe shined it with 220 grit.

 

[Underwhere]

Next I undercut the trigger guard. I always get an irritation from the squared edge of the trigger guard on my middle finger.

Much more comfortable now.

Test fitting my wood grips.

Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18

Show Content

 

[Underwhere]

Next comes the magwell shaping.
The stock form comes too squared off for me.

 

[Underwhere]

Next comes the recessing of my slide stop lever in the frame.

 

[Underwhere]

I rounded the front of the frame. Although this ruins the square lines up front, my fingers thank me as I often manipulate guns towards the front and having a squared off frame beats my fingers up.

 

[Underwhere]

Next I polish ip the inside of the frame.
I'd rather polish now before bluing.

Rails
Flat where disconnector rides
Sides of frame where trigger bar contacts

 

[Underwhere]

Then I start on the slide.

I polish the rails
I round the back of the slide for the hammer to more easily cock.

 

[Underwhere]

I forgot to mention I put in a full length guide rod and flushed it with the frame.

This was not my best work. I opened up the hole too big. It is what it is now.

I have since made much progress on guide rods. My newest ones look better than factory.

 

[Underwhere]

So here the gun sits now.

I have a bit more polishing to do before the bath in Evaporust

 

[Underwhere]

I need to go over the gun again to make sure the metal work and polishing is done.

I need to polish the firing pin channel and clean up all the controls that will be blued.

Once comfortable with the metal work i'll test fit all the internal components just in case....then prep for bluing.

 

[SPO1SHADOW]

Most excellent work my Brother! You could make a fortune putting beavertails on Browning Hi Powers like that. Carry on i am really enjoying the ride.

 

[Underwhere]

So tonight was an exploratory night.
I had in the past polished the barrel bushing and crown because I like a nice thick shiny muzzle.

I saw that someone had taken an 11 degree crown to both the barrel and bushing so I figured I'd give that a shot.

I took a barrel brush, inserted into the barrel and threw the back into a drill to spin it. I used a Dremel to shorten the barrel until flush with the bushing.

Then I hit it with the 11 degree crown.

It was as easy as I had hoped and turned out better than I expected. I really like it.

 

[Underwhere]

More pics

 

[bar-the-exit]

That "fat" bushing is quite a look.

 

[SPO1SHADOW]

I like it.

 

[Goju]

I like as well. And really nice work on the profile of the trigger guard!

 

[Underwhere]

I realized I screwed up a bit.
I have a lot of projects going on and totally forgot this was a pre-b with a firing pin retaining plate.

So I rounded the back of the slide without the plate in (thinking this was a modern slide)

When I went to test fit the parts to be blued I realized my mistake.

So I attempted to blend the 2 pieces together after tossing a firing pin into the channel.

I hope I don't feel a noticeable bump as the slide reciprocates. Maybe I might. It is what it is. I don't think I want to try and weld this to fill it.

 

[Underwhere]

I removed my 10x bushing to prep everything for bluing. I am going to recrown once fully assembled to make sure that I can fix any rotation the 10x bushing makes once I toss it back in.

I took a stainless carding brush to clean out the roll marks.

I gathered all my to-be-blued parts and gave them a bath with Dawn dish washing liquid. I tried getting every nook and cranny with a brush and q-tips.

After drying they went for a swim in Evaporust.

Done for tonight.