I am working on a colt Officers Model 1911 45 acp.... I have been adding little things to it, like a extended Mag release, Hi-ride grip safety, light weight trigger and a ambi safety.

Have any of you guys tried to put in a new safety? What a PAIN IN THE A$$! There is no droping in of parts on these guns is there? I work on Glocks at work and I can throw any combination of parts into a Glock and it will drop in and work no problem.

I am just venting... I have been messing around with this gun for a couple of days trying to figure it out and finally today I packed up my stuff and took my Officers 1911 to a pistol smith.

I am not the only dope who has tried to work on a 1911 with out any luck am I????

I feel your pain, the only time you will usually get drop in safeties is with replacement parts from the same company. Almost every 1911 clone out there is built to slightly different measurements and tolerances.

Then again maybe it's just the gunsmithing gods gently trying to tell you that an ambi safety is more hassle than it is worth, unless you are left handed.........

Yeah, depending on the differances between all the clones, there are a lot of very tiny differances in tolerance out there. I've had some that just dropped right in, and others that practically had to be rebuilt. Military rebuild articles always made it sound like everything just pops together, and I guess if you have a bin with 4000 safeties in it, you just keep trying them until one does. It's a pain in the butt sometimes, though. - Dan