Recommendations for a smith to work on my Colt Series 70 Nickel Govt.

[mtice1]

I recently purchased a Colt Series 70 Government Model in bright nickel. The nickel finish is decent with some minor scratches. However, the slide release is losing the nickel finish completely and there is a chip in the nickel finish on the collet barrel bushing (which I am contemplating replacing with a standard bushing). The trigger pull is very heavy at 6lbs.

I would like the members recommendations on a good smith that I can contact to discuss working on the Colt Series 70 to refurbish this gun to factory new condition with the addition of a 4lb trigger job and maybe replacing the collet barrel bushing.

One more quetions, would it be wise to have the whole gun refinished in hard chrome or stick with the factory nickel finish?

[ColtCustom45]

I would like the members recommendations on a good smith that I can contact to discuss working on the Colt Series 70 to refurbish this gun to factory new condition

You can always send it to Colt if factory new condition is the objective.

[nunya]

Where do you live? There are lots of good ones - if you're near one of them you can save $80 on shipping.

http://m1911.org/full_gunsmiths.htm

[mtice1]

Does refinishing this nickel gun in hard chrome detract from any collector value. Or should I just have the collet bushing and slide stop refinished in nickel? The rest of the gun's finish is pretty good.

[paul45]

You can always send it to Colt if factory new condition is the objective.Colt doesn't do nickel to my knowledge. If a refinish is done, I would go hardchrome.....

Does refinishing this nickel gun in hard chrome detract from any collector value.
Any refinishing will negatively affect collector value....but collectors are after LNIB examples with original paperwork.

Maybe you can post pics so we can see that fine piece?

[suprmatch]

Try this place EGW (http://www.egw-guns.com/) , I have and they did great work. I went there on a recomendation from a fellow shooter. They did great work, my kimber actually works they way it should. It only took about 1 month to get the work done. I had no idea how good they were till I started reading about some of their work in the gun magazines.

[Joni Lynn]

I had a beautiful nickle series 70 Gov't that I wanted refinished in hard chrome. When the nickle was striped off there was so much pitting under all the plating that the gun took a lot of work to have anything close to a good appearance. My gun was as near mint as a gun can be when only fired a few times and properly stored.

[mtice1]

Given your experience with the pitting under the nickel finish of your Series 70, would you probably recommend leaving the nickel finish as is? The finish is at least 97% with the exception of the slide stop which the nickel has flaked off the serrated portion of the release. I plan on getting a new hard chrome plated slide stop to replace it. Hopefully directly from Colt if possible.

[Joni Lynn]

I'd recommend not removing the plating.
The metal damage caused a good deal of trouble for the pistolsmith that worked on mine and I guess cost me a lot more $$$ as well. It would probably have been less expensive to purchase a new series 70 in blue and have it worked on as what I did. Wow, my hindsight is excellent! :D

[mtice1]

Thank you for the insight and helpful advice. I'll definately leave the gun in its original Nickel finsih as it sure is "pretty". I guess I am now in the market for a blued series 70 in a little rougher condition for my build gun. By the way, do you know what caused the pitting on your series 70? If this is a common problem and my gun might have pitting under my Nickel finish as well, will it eventually eat throught he Nickel from the inside out, even with proper care?

[Joni Lynn]

I think on mine they just thought it was either the nickle or a base maetal that was put on prior to the nickle reacting with the steel.