1911 .45 AMT Longballer Disasembly / Clean / Reass

[1denny]

I have recently bought a used AMT .45 ACP Hardballer that needs a good cleaning. I have another 1911 that I have regularly cleaned (to the rails), but not all the way. Is there anyone out there that can show me how to disassemble / clean / reassemble a AMT .45 ACP Hardballer?

[Rip Van Winkle]

It's easy, just keep removing parts until it looks like this.



Assemble in reverse order.

[mmcnx2]

I can disassemble/reassemble a 1911 in my sleep. Drop me a PM and we'll see if we can hook up.

[bensdad]

I like Rip's answer. Reminds me of the first time I took apart a BPS.

[Seismic Sam]

The AMT Hardballer was a late 1970's gun, back when all stainless 1911's were a lot more of a rarity, and I had one from the original Arcadia Machine Tool shop. The quality steadily dropped as they moved locations, and the location is listed on the gun. Think there's a Wikipedia article on them or something else. They are a pretty standard 1911, and the field strip is normal. Never done a detail strip on a 1911, so I wouldn't know about that, but I doubt the AMT is much different. They're not like the newer designs like a 50GI with it's reverse plug and stop pin in the recoil rod or the two piece, funky, and irritationg Springfield long slide. These are two piece barrels like older 1911's, with the back of the barrel and the locking lug heat fit to the turned cylindrical barrel, and the AMT's are NOT silver soldered in place. As such, you can tell how many rounds have been fired by the gun and it's proportional to the size of the gap between the rear outer part of the barrel and the rest of it.

Here's the reference, and it turns out the AMT Hardballer was the FIRST all stainless 1911 made. I held onto mine for 20 years, and it was my brush, chainsaw, and hiking gun because it was invulnerable to sweat, but I finally sold it to help but a Bright Stainless Colt Delta Elite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMT_Hardballer

[onebohemian]

Youtube is your friend when it comes to learning how to detail strip many common guns, including 1911s. Watch a few videos and then dig into it. The one thing to watch out for is when you reassemble. Do not -- under any circumstances -- allow yourself to scratch the side of the frame when you replace the slide stop. It shows a real lack of care when there's an idiot scratch below the slide stop. Again, youtube videos will show how to install this piece without rubbing it against the frame. It just requires a bit of patience.

One last thing. Great for you for wanting to learn how to do this. I've said it before, I'll say it again, and I'm sure I'll say it in the future: One should understand how a gun comes apart and goes back together. They are simple mechanical tools wo which we trust our lives. It continues to amaze me how some folks who carry have no idea about even the basic function of these tools. These are typically the folks who fail to clean even a new gun before shooting it, complain about FTF or FTE on their first time out, and then immediatley ship the gun back to the factory for warranty work. Ignorance just keeps winning the battle as fewer and fewer folks spend the time to figure things out but instead rely on others to do things for them.

[Drizzle]

You buy that one been at Gunstop a while?

[tator2k]

Some of the Hardballers were known to have ejectors and other parts in the frame welded in place.

[Seismic Sam]

Some of the Hardballers were known to have ejectors and other parts in the frame welded in place.

Like I said, as AMT started to go downhill and locations started to switch as often as s floating crap game, the quality went downhill. With the AMT backup series of guns, AMT was reputed to stand for "Always Makes Trash"...