Fitting grips

[Crossdrawnj]

I am looking for someone in the central NJ area who can fit a pair of grips for me. I just got a pair of John Wayne style grips from Buffalo Bros. for a 3rd gen Colt. In the very near furture, I want to fit a .44-40 cylinder too.  If there is anyone out there who can help, I will be very thankful. I prefer to aviod sending my guns through the mail.

Crossdraw
SASS # 6929

[Crossdrawnj]

Anyone???

[Camille Eonich]

Stump fit mine for me.  Just get some sand paper and go very slow with them.  If they are way out you may need to carve a little off first.  Sand, try on, sand try on for fit.

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[Curley Cole]

I hate fitting grips. My gunsmith has retired from the "grip fitting". Here is my GW2 with the Buffalo Bros that I fitted to it.

If they are going to be one piece, with the spacer in the middle, follow their instructions on fitting the spacer.

When you are fitting to size, put the grips on and look at the high spots, Ink them if possible and remove and do the heavy sanding (the heavier grit you use, will mean more clean up sanding at the end.) Sand slowly and check for fit OFTEN. You can take it off but ya cant put it back on. When it is getting close, (this is how I do it, there may be better ways, but this is my way.)
Put painters tape on the b/s and t/g where you are going to be sanding. Again go slow, and use a finer grit here, and make sure you don't sand thru the tape, and ruin the finish.

I didn't need any "final sanding" on these grips but what I use for making them real shiny is SemiChrome Polish (it has jewelers rouge in it and will give a good shine to almost anything.

Camille said it and I can't repeat it enough GO SLOW, TAKE YOUR TIME.  BB's grips are pretty close, and only took me 1/2 hour to do these in the picture.

good luck and let us see a finished product...
curley

[Crossdrawnj]

How did you polish all of the sanding marks out?

Crossdraw

[Curley Cole]

  I don't know if you  have started on your grips yet, but I found that Buffalo Bros grips were fairly soft (compared to the poly ivory and ivory grips I get from Boone Traders, so they are fairly easy to remove material from. I started with a medium grade of sand paper and it took the material off pretty quick, Go to finer and finer sandpaper, you could even do a little wet sanding but I really didn't need that. Basicly once you get down to almost no scratch marks  and when you get it fairly smooth, that is when you go to the SemiChrome Polish (you can get i t at some hardware stores, most motorcycle shops and at Midway) It has jewelers rouge in it so it is mildly abrasive. I forgot last post to tell you to get some 0000 steel wool, use the Semichrome and the steel wool, and then finally just use the Semichrome and a soft cloth. You can polish anything with this stuff...(I even used it to polish the chambers on my shotgun...get a cotton mop, chuck it in the drill and put a heap o polish on it and run it on slow speed..)

I never am without at least one tube of this stuff...

any other questions, just holler, and let us see pix of resuilts

curley