I had been thinking of Titanium Nitriding (TiN, the same coating on drill bits) my 1911 barrel for a while, but they frown on doing used barrels due to the difficulty of getting them perfectly clean. Well, this was a chance to do it. However, I couldn't just do the barrel....I figured go hard or go home!
Before I break down all the things I did and used, I just want to give a shout out and acknowledge Ryan the gunsmith at Bills. I wouldn't have been able to do this with out his help and pointers. He is a solid guy, a good friend, a talented shooter and a great gunsmith.
Parts:
- 9mm CZ75 Shadow (not the SPO1)
Cajun Gun works ultra light mainspring
Cajun Gun works extended firing pin
Cajun Gun works trigger pin
CZ Custom Trigger return spring
CZ Custom Aluminum Skate tape grips
First thing I had to do was strip this sucker apart....ALLL the way apart. Having talked with Ryan and researched the internet ( best site: http://drstrangegun.blogspot.com/2007/06/past-pins.html), I was able to take this puppy down to everything but the trigger. Apparently the trigger pin is staked, and it requires a starter punch, an overworked gunsmith, and a lot of swearing to remove. I replaced it with the cajun gun works trigger pin is a floater pin which is held by the spring, so I can remove it easier later.
After taking everything apart (and laying it out carefully so I knew where everything went), I started polishing the switches and areas I wanted to TiN coat. This took a LOT of sanding, griding, dremeling, and polishing, so I wont' bore you with the details.
Next I took the parts to Surface Solutions, and they graciously took my parts, did a little touch up work to their specs, and coated them for me. They said they don't really do this stuff anymore, since it doesn't pay for them, but they liked my project and my winning personality so they ran them for me.
Putting the pieces back together, I decided to mirror polish every articulating surface (cuz thats how I roll). I even took apart the trigger mechanism box (dispite warnings, but I'm a risktaker) and did some work polishing up the sear surfaces.
Regarding spring work, I purchased a bunch of trigger return springs, because I wanted to lighten up the pull (without decreasing the mainspring too much), and the factory trigger weighed in at 2.5 lbs. (We are talking about JUST the trigger and its return spring, nothing else). After cranking on some of these I got it down to just under 1 lb. Combined with a custom mainspring it feels niiiiiice.
I put an extended firing pin to prevent light strikes on primers. It came with a firing pin spring but it was too weak and the pin kept getting jammed in the firing pin hole after the hammer hit it. Using the factory spring worked great.
Finally, I machined two dots in the rear sight (they don't make CZ rear sights with dots), and I hit my grips with just a dusting of gold paint to set them off.
All said and done she has a 6 lb DA and a 2 1/4 lb SA, scary smooth.
