Got my new Kimber today :(

P

prhm

New member
I picked up my Custom Classic II from the gun shop today. The first thing I did was strip it down and give it a good cleaning. All went well until I tried to reinstall the recoil spring plug. I launched that thing into never-never land. There has got to be a better way to get that thing back in. Anyone got any tips? Is it so hard because of the full legnth guide rod? I had a para-ordnance with a standard guide rod and the spring plug went right back in everytime.

Worst part of the whole thing is the fact that none of the three local shops stock a plug. So I had them order a new one from kimber so I get to wait yet another week before trying this thing out.
 
prhm

Sorry bud, I had to laugh when I read your post. I just bought a new Kimber a couple weeks back and did the same exact thing, right down to the launching of the recoil spring plug. It shot from my living room into my office and I ended up spending about an hour moving furniture, book cases and golf clubs looking for the damn thing. My wife kept suggesting that I just buy a new one, but I was determined to find it (my eyes must've lit up something fierce, because she quickly amended with "not the gun, the spring thingy").

And find it I did! It was sitting on my bookcase, third shelf from the top, in front of "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare". So have faith and keep searching. It will soon turn up!

Kirk
 
During undergrad I worked in a large sporting goods store in Indy, nights and weekends. One summer I was interning at the Secretary of State's office and working the store nights and weekends. I was seemingly always dragging.

On night near closing a customer wanted to see the "Glock 7." I showed and sold him a Glock 17. After he was signing the 4473 he asked me to show him how to field strip it. I did and when I was reassembling it I shot the recoil guide rod (this is before the captive system they use now) over the aisles of fishing gear. The fishing rods were mounted above the wooden aisles. It hit a fishing rod and we found it 3 days later by the Uncle Josh pork stuff.

I went by "Glockman" for several weeks. I also found descriptive drawings by my desk and in my sack dinner. Thank goodness I didn't hit any customers. "Tonight at 11--clerk arrested for battery upon a Plainfield man with a little piece of plastic. Prosecutors are asking for no bail."

BTDT. Now I were safety glasses when field stripping. O.K., stop laughing out there.
 
Is it caught in your hair? :D

Yeah, the 1911's can be tricky to reassemble. What I ususally do is to get the cap on the spring, and use my hands to stuff it back under the bushing, then turn the bushing only so much as to catch that ledge of the cap, then use the plastic key the rest of the way.

HTH.
 
I also put the spring cap back in as Rovert and railroader do.

My wife and I got new carpet last summer, kind of a gun metal gray. Now there is Camouflage for small parts.
I have ordered new lost parts, only to find the lost one a week or two after the new one came, and that is after the room gets vacuumed and cleaned.


Tony
 
Once had that happen to me. Fortunately, it landed in the wife's onion dip (I was quick to home in on the gripes and groans) :D

Better way to put it back? I use the flat of the bushing wrench to press down on the spring cap until it's flush with the front of the slide. This allows me to rotate the bushing over it with my free thumb.
 
Last edited:
prhm,

You must think we're a bunch of total dickheads, laughing at your miserable plight and all! :D But, at the risk of seeming to pile on, thanks much for the day brightener!

Matt
 
Putting the Kimber back together again

Hey Greg, I am sorry about your mishap. At least no here has laughed at you in person.

When I got my New shinny Kimber Compact CDP II, I field-stripped, cleaned and then began to put it back together.

I worked on it for almost two hour before I gave up. The slide stop shaft simply would not snap in place. I lined up the notches of the frame and slide as the book said but I still could not get the shaft to snap into the gun.

So, at 4:30 in the afternoon, I went to the gun shop where I purchased it. Unfortunately for me, there were about ten guys there shooting the breeze and lying to each other about their shooting abilities.

When I walked in, with the Kimber in pieces, I got the works from those experts. You never heard so many cuts as I got. The gun shop owner finally took it upon himself to save me. But then, heaven must have looked down on me with compassion. The gun shop owner could not get the Kimber back together.

Four or five of the guys tried and finally one got the slide stop shaft to snap into place.

The problem was that when the notch lines on the frame and slide were lined up, they were actually off a minute fraction. However, that was just enough to prohibit the shaft from easily snapping into place.

The really bad part of this matter is that the frame got a deep scratch from all of the pushing of the shaft onto the frame.

Never had this trouble with my toy guns.
 
Last edited:
I put lineoleum in my "gun room" because of all the cleaners I use there. Only problem is I chose kind of a stone pattern thats grey and black. Drop a spring or screw forget about it. In fact I once dropped a scoped 8 3/8" 629 on the floor and still haven't found it:D
 
Did You Know.....

If this happens in the field, you can use a fired .45acp case as a temporary fix. The plug system was designed around the casing diameter.
 
Not with a full length guide rod you can't...Oh no...did I say that...now we are in trouble...I have opened up the Full length guide rod pro/con discussion again...crap!!! Nobody ready this...ok?
 
I launched my BBL plug last time I stripped my 1911...

It's got a FL guide rod, so the end of the plug is open, which makes the rim a little 'sharp' feeling when you depress it with your thumb. Well, now I just swapped it with a 22# spring, so it's a PAIN to get in... I'm dreading taking it down again.

I'l try removing the bushing with the gun under a table, so if it launches, it will just hit the table. :)
 
I did that when I got my first Kimber. I ended up cracking a window. That has never happened with either of my Springfields, or my Gold Cup.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top