Here we showcase some of the Pachmayr restoration and updating projects we take on. Some of the work required to restore a Pachmayr pistol is relatively straight forward but there are other projects that are more extensive in nature and could include replacing entire front straps due to damaged or poor checkering for instance. Fortunately, we are equipped with all the necessary parts, tooling and fixturing to restore almost any Pachmayr pistol to include the Signature Model. The main image of this page will show the most recent progress snap of a unit in process. The scrolling images below represent the progress of the project from day one in key stages with a written outline of the proceedings. We use iPhonography to capture progress images therefor the quality may be somewhat compromised but the unit in final form will be shot in the studio and available for reference purposes.
Restoration in Progress
"The current Combat Special restoration on the bench is a very unique example of a 'chopped' 1911 theme that was quite the rage during the 1970 and early eighties. Just about every custom shop tried their hand at reducing the slide and frame length of a full size 1911. It was only in the mid 80's that Colt introduced the 'Officer's Model' but up to that point it was chop, weld and braze for many gunsmiths.
This particular unit came in as a bag of parts with many of the frame components and internals missing. The parts that were present were all usable but I had to locate an original right side Swenson safety and fabricate the main spring housing because the overall length and cross pin location is unique to the pistol. I elected to fit an original Pachmayr metal beavertail to step up the desirability. When building legacy Combat Specials on Colt chassis I often make the beavertail from scratch but in this instance I wanted the unit to be 100% authentic so I employed one of the rough castings provided to us in the custom shop at PGW that was fitted to the guns we built. These were difficult to style with hand tools. They were overly hard and difficult to fit. This design of beavertail requires a 'Commander' hammer modified to Pachmayr specs which I did using an original unit I had in stock. I did cheat a little by using swing fixture when radiusing the tang of the frame because back in the day we used a manual method to generate the radius which depending on the skill level of the gunsmith building the weapon sometimes lead to a shoddy gap between the mating radius surfaces. The grips I selected are double diamond ebony which are indicative of the time. The frame on the unit is only a quarter of an inch shorter than stock but using Pachmayr grips was not an option. As was the case back then, stock Colt magazines were shortened to match the frame and we needed to do the same for this project. The pistol at this stage is pretty much ready for the frame and controls to be hard chromed. The top end was in good shape and was left as received".