Introduction: Detail Stripping the Kimber Pro Carry II 1911 Pistol.

Ok first you are going to need a few things.

You will need the takedown tool. Some kind of punch, I'm using a Dubro ball head hex driver for my R/C race truck. And some sort of small lightweight device to tap with, I'm using a screwdriver.
Figure 1.1

You will also need something to grip with, I'm using self locking tweezers, but you could use hemostats, or if you are really adept with strong fingers, you can use regular tweezers.
Figure 1.2

Of course you will also need, THE GUN!
Figure 1.3

Now first thing is first, don't be a douchebag, CLEAR THE GUN!!!!!

Check the chamber, then check the mag well. Then feel the chamber, then feel the mag well. Now go and visually check the chamber and the mag well again.
SEE THE LAST 2 IMAGES

Ok done? Well guess what? I DON'T BELIEVE YOU, GO DO ALL THAT AGAIN TO MAKE SURE! You want no risk of putting a round through the wall and into someone's head. Remember if you follow the rules of firearm safety then it is IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to be hurt, so please just do it again. I take no responsibility for yourstupidity, ignorance, OR ARROGANCE!

Ok done? Great, lets move on.

Step 1: Field Stripping the Slide.

First of all, field strip your gun. If you don't know how to field strip your gun, check your manual. Also if you don't know how to field strip it, then you REALLY SHOULD NOT BE DETAIL STRIPPING IT EITHER, I DON'T CARE HOW MECHANICALLY INCLINED YOU ARE!

Ok we are going to start with the slide. in figure 2.1 the red arrow is pointing at the firing pin, and the green arrow at the stopper.

Now in figure 2.2 the arrow is pointing at the firing pin block. Now these three things are very important.

First press down and hold down the firing pin block with your thumb. While holding down the firing pin block push the firing pin in with the punch tool. While holding both of these in, use a spare finger or use the punch tool to move the stopper towards the bottom of the slide, until it is blocking the firing pin fromcomingback up. You now may remove the punch tool, and also remove your thumb from the firing pin block(this part is important to keep you from skeweringyour eyeball.

Now while aiming away from you, and for good measure holding your hand over the end of the slide, slide the stopper down off the bottom. The firing pin should have stayed in place on this particular firearm. Now keep in mind that if you are using this guide to detail strip a different 1911 model, the firing pin and spring may takeoff towards orbit, and if it has nofiring pin block it most certainly WILL fly out. Remember anything under tension can make a GREAT eyeball skewer.

Now hold your hand over the end of theslide abouthalf an inch and press the firing pin block, and the firing pin should pop up. Now either using your fingers or your tweezers, remove the firing pin/spring assembly. They are kinda stuck together.

Figures 2.3 and 2.4 show what everything should look like. Sorry I kind of got them backwards in order.

Step 2: Onto the First Part of the FRAME!!!! Safety Removal.

Now onto the first part of detail stripping the frame.

With the gun cocked, put the safety lever in the safe position. As per figure 3.1 Now grab ahold of ittightly with your fingers, and wiggle itback and forth while pulling on it. It should end up sliding right out. Keep at it, itmay take a minute.

Now once that is out, there will be a little rod sticking out, pull it out SLOWLY, it should have a spring attached to it, with a shorter rod at the other end. Remember which way this part is installed, you will need to remember it. Also when reinstalling the safety switch, you will need to use your punch to press it into it's hole to allow you to slide the safety switch back in.
Figure 3.2

Nowin figure 3.3 you will notice that you NEED the safety lever inthe gun in order to hold the beavertail/grip safety in place. Don't even THINK about leaving either of these off the gun, they effect it's function, and without either one can actually CAUSE a malfunction or misfire. So if yer thinking of leaving them off, so you can use your gun faster, DON'T! Either sell your gun because you are too stupid to RESPONSIBLY own one, or better yet, go get a bit of training. There are plenty of inexpensive classes around, and I'm sure you can even find some peope who know what they are doing who are willing to teach you.

I don't mean to sound like a jerk on part of this, but with owning and even moreso with carrying a firearm(with a license I might add), comes responsibility. You now MUST be the bigger person in all altercations, because you have the means to defend yourself with lethal force, and escalating the situation can be construed as premeditated murder.

All politics aside, gun ownership is a right, but doing so responsibly, is what keeps it socially acceptable so people won't ask for the right to be taken away.

Now onto the next step.

Step 3: Second Part of Frame Stripping. Backstrap, Hammert, Sear Spring.

Now in figure 4.1 we see a little pin at the bottom of the grip that is holding the backstrap in place. The backstrap is also called the main spring housing.

Use your punch along with the hammer apparatus to tap the pin out. Now it probably won't come all the way out, this is fine it's normal.

Now after it's backed out, we can see in figure 4.2 that you just slide the backstrap straight down, and then off the pistol. You can also remove the grip safety at this time.

Still with me? GREAT! This is where it gets interesting. You now have to keep an eye on which pin goes where, and which direction it goes. Now use your punch to push the pin out as per figure 4.3. You shouldn't need your tapping tool, if it doesn't push out easily, go back over all the steps, and make sure you didn't miss anything. If you did, and that hammer is under tension, then SPROING! There goes an eyeball. Try explaining THAT to your Dr. Now the hammer should just lift right out no problem.

Now in figure 4.4 you can see the hammer, hammer pin, and grip safety sitting there all alone. Thebackstrap held the lower part of the grip safety to the frame. Now before we continue, notice that bar coming down off the hammer. It's very important, as that has to slide into a hold in the back strap. that hole contains the plunger and the spring which drives the hammer forward to strike the firing pin to fire the gun. So when reassembling the gun, you will need to line that up with the hole in the backstrap.

In figure 4.5 you can see the sear spring. Pay attention to how this was BEFORE you removed it. Howit interfaced with the frame and with the sear assembly. This is VERY important because if you get it wrong and try to fire your gun you could very well remove digits(READ FINGERS) from your hand, and we do not want that to happen. Remember safety first.

Now before we move on, I MUST point out, if you see any burs or chunky's on the hammer such as damagedmetal, do NOT, I repeat DO NOT try and repair it. Put the gun back together, and take it to a gunsmith for repair. If any filing or sanding or removal of metal is done ANYWHERE near the sear interface on the hammer, it could turn your pistol into a fully automatic weapon, and it would be a POST NFA automatic weapon which is 100% illegal for civilian use and ownership. The first time you got a BRAAAP at the range, the ATF would be all over you, and not only would you be arrested, but you would be charged with owning, and using an illegal machinegun, but since you tampered with it REGARDLESS of if you are trying to repair it or not(the ATF doesn't care the how or why, only theend result),you ould be charged with MANUFACTURING an illegal machinegun. Now if that happens, by the time you get out of prison, we won'y beusing any cars anymore, not even flying ones, we'll be using Star Trek style transporters. So I'm only telling you this for your own good. I don't want you to go to jail. Afterall if you went to jail who would read my firearm related instructables? GRIN.

Onto the next section.

Step 4: Last Step in Detail Stripping, the SEAR ASSEMBLY! Plus Notes on Reassembly.

Now in figure 5.1 the arrow is pointing to the pin that holds the sear assembly in place. It will push right out with the punch easily. Just like the hammer pin did.

Now in figure 5.2 we can see all three pieces that we just removed. The first piece isn't part of the sear assembly, it's what interfaces with the grip safety and firing pin block. If you don't get this bugger back in there, or in correctly. You won't be able to shoot your gun. You will pull the trigger and nothing will happen.

Parts 2 and 3 are part of the sear assembly. Aside from wiping these down with a rag, absolutely NOTHING should be done to these parts. Just as with messing with the hammer, ANYTHING done to these could result in a full auto firearm. See the last step for information on the bad stuff that can happen.

Now if you want to know how these buggers go back together and their proper orientation with each other because you didn't pay attention, check out figure 5.3. Oh and just so you know, the top of figure 5.3 is the end which goes INTO the firearm. Put the safety interface in FIRST. Then the other two parts together as a unit. The concave(curved in) part of the assembly faces outward, and that is where the curved part of the hammer goes into.

Now the last two images you have to look at VERY VERY VERY CLOSELY! They are nearly identical. One shows the way in which the sear spring is supposed to sit in relation to the sear assembly, and the other is how it is NOT. Getting it in there incorrectly, can cause you to lose fingers if you try to fire your gun like this.

Reassembly is essentially the reverse of dissassembly. Now the "correct" way to do it is after the backstrap and grip safety is in place to put the hammer in, but I spent the better part of an hour trying to do it this way. I believe there are special jigs to allow this to happen correctly. Personally, I put the hammer back in to make sure it's interfaced correctly(sear spring in first by the way), and once it's in right and pinned, I then slide the backstrap up almost all the way. Then I insert the grip safety, thenI pull the hammer back just enough to allow me to see where that bar on the hammer will go into the hole in thebackstrap. Once it's in there I push it up all the way. Make sure the little tangs on the grip safety are underneath the top edge of the backstrap. Here is where it gets tricky, you have to have great manual dexterity as well as finger strength. Or a jig of some sort. You have to put ALOT of pressure UPWARD and INWARD on the backstrap to get the pin to line up. To make matters worse, inside the backstrap, that spring is pushing a little plunger thing down into that hole. The pressure from that plunger goes into the detend machined into the pin and prevents the pin from backing out under use.

Now onto my final notes.

Step 5: Final Notes.

There you have it, you have now detail stripped the Kimber Pro Carry II 1911 handgun. Hopefully you have it back together. That backstrap pin can be a REAL pain to get back in.

Now Kimber recommends that you never detail strip your gun. And if you decide to keep a relatively stock pistol I generally agree. However knowing how to do so can be handy for facilitating the replacement of worn or damaged parts, or for installing upgraded parts. Now while the hammer would be able to be replaced easily enough, due to it's interfacing with the sear, and the aforementioned potential legal issues, I strongly recommend NOT replacing the hammer yourself. Same with the sear assembly. Take it to a gunsmith that specializes in the 1911. Make sure to get him to sign acopy of tthe work performed DETAILING everything that was done to the pistol, so if the gunsmith did the work andit auto fires at the range, you have SOME recourse against prison time. Tell them this upfront, and why you want them to do it. Most gunsmiths will probably tell you that you don't need to worry. Ask them to do it anyway for your own piece of mind. If they still refuse, go somewhere else. If they say they will do it while you are walking out the door, keep walking. Your life is not worth the risk. A GOOD gunsmith will look at you and say Sure thing, no problem.

Any other parts on the other hand are fair game to replace.

Now since I didn't have the tools with me at this time, I didn't remove the grips, mag release, or the trigger. I will save that for another instructable, and I will do it about replacing the trigger.

Now the last note here, is that this guide can be used to detail strip just about any 1911 firearm. Most everything is identical, I just happened to use a Kimber Pro Carry II, because it is a wonderful pistol, it is the only 1911 I own, and it is the one i use as my primary carry and range pistol. With other 1911's from other manufacturers, some of the details may vary a bit, but for the most part this is it. I actually learned to do this on a Springfield, and an original Surplus COLT 1911. Few details different, mostly in howit's field stripped, but you should already know how to field strip your own gun.

So until next time when I show you how to replace the trigger, the is the detail stripping of a 1911 in a nutshell. If you've never done this before, it might bea good idea to get a 1911 parts schematic for your firearm.