jan-erik

Hi I know this isa question where there are many views on.

I have a Para 16-40 Todd Jarett signature model. I had to do much work to get it to function flawlessly with factory ammo.

Now I want to tighten the slide/receiver and thought of the simplest way due to lack of proper tools.

I have heard that the Paras are injection casted and not using forged steel. That generate a question.
How about peening the slide rails on the receiver. Are the steel too brittle to be peened and may breake?
Has anybody done it with success?
Can the slide be pressed some thousends together without breaking?.

I have never worked on cast receivers and slides.

I would appreciate comments very much as I live in Norway and here are not many real good gunsmiths here that know the 1911 good. The few ones have large queues.

Wild Bill Caldwell

I know I'll be flamed on this one but under no circumstance would I peen a para frame....Castin is rough on all I've seen.....Get a Briley spherical ring bushin to fit barrel and slide , with a good barrel , fit properly , be sure barrel goes into lock up like it should, frame to slide fit can be loose and the pistol most times will out shoot the shooter.....years back We got in a race to see who could fit frames and slides too tight and still get them to work, a race that won't ever be over....A 1911 I build to carry Myself or compete with ,I build with slack in the frame and slide , sideways and up and down....'''I want the slide stop pin Pushin the barrel up as far as possile or at least to the proper specs ....barrel feet must be a tight fit on the slide stop pin when the barrel lugs are locked up....Weld up the feet if necessary....The 1640 limited I built would shoot into 1in at 25 yds , this was with a Brily barel , slide and frame was as they came from para

Wild Bill

JohnnyT

I'll chime in with an experience I had once with a cast frame.
Feller brings me an old Thompson Auto Ordnance with a middlin' loose slide to frame fit. Nothin' really wrong with the gun, and it was one of the rare Thompsons that actually ran.
He just wanted it to be tight.

Probably read some gun rag article rife with praise over the tight fit of some semi-custom.

Anyway...Try as I did to talk him out of fixin' somethin' that wasn't broke...he insisted.

So...I installed the fixture and locked it into a vise and grabbed my swaging punch.

Wham! The hammer fell...and the left frame rail snapped off plumb back to the slidestop takedown window.

Took it out of the vise and the fixture...reassembled the internals and handed it to him.

"Here ya go, sport. Don't say I didn't warn ya."

Bill just warned ya. A no-rattle slide really ain't all it's cracked up to be, anyway.