Tag Archives: 1911 modifications

1911 Grips

by Woodsbum

At this year’s Black Friday sale, I purchased a Para Ordnance Expert 1911 in stainless steel. The pistol feels nice and shoots quite well, but aesthetically it isn’t quite as “pimped” out as I would have liked. I guess I can’t complain too much considering the price I paid, but still I would prefer to have this pistol much more eye catching. To accomplish this I did a little shopping and decided to start my upgrading process with the grips.

Stock Para Ordnance Expert

Stock Para Ordnance Expert

Most grips you find online are the same design just resold by a different vendor. Not much variation seems to exist considering I wanted something obnoxious with skulls. Then I stumbled across this SPD Custom Grips place out of North Carolina. It looks like most of their products are for paintball, but they did have some grips for real handguns that look pretty redneck pimp. This is what I ordered and for a reasonable price.

SPD Custom Grips Kit

SPD Custom Grips Kit

Now swapping out grips on a 1911 is almost USAF proof. It is just two screws per side and then popping the grips off the bushings. It’s a very easy and simple process.

When putting these grips on, the spacers are said to be required. Unfortunately the spacers don’t fit the grip lines exactly so there is an overhang on the edge of the grip. I will end up having to go buy a bushing tool and different bushings for low profile grips from Brownells or Midway to skip the spacers altogether.

Ill fit between grip and spacer

Ill fit between grip and spacer

You can also see how thick this makes the handle of the pistol. This really isn’t that comfortable anymore so it will need to be fixed. The price for firearm fashion, I guess.

I will order my bushing parts sooner than later, but after I get my .50 BMG out of layaway and pay for some ammo I committed to purchasing. Once I get the bushings taken care of, I will do another post about that in case anyone runs into this problem like I did.

The overall appearance of the pistol after the grips is pleasing to me. The next upgrades I will do include swapping out all the black parts for stainless. This includes the main spring guide, beavertail, safety, slide release and mag release. I will leave the black trigger and hammer for accent, however.

Grips installed

Grips installed

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