1911 top end swapping?

[wintermute76]

Got a question for the 1911 gurus

I have a Para LDA 18.9 9mm. I've been offered a swap of my slide assy for a .45 slide assy from a Para LDA 7.45.

Are there any reasons that this wouldn't work? Only thing offhand I can think of would be the ejector would need to be changed, and maybe issues with linkdown/linkup timing of the barrel to the slide stop pin? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks


I was looking at selling or trading the Para for a Springfield widebody .45, but I could live with the LDA and a .45 top end.

 

[1911Tuner]

Swap

Howdy wintermute,

Best answer that I can give...based on some experience...leave it lay.
Easy to correct differences are in the ejector and the slidestop. Harder to adjust for is in the feed ramp design differences between the two calibers.
Even with a fully ramped barrel, there's the issue of might drop in/might not/probably won't without a lot of patience. Then, if ya do get it to work, the gun may not function as a 9mm again...ever.

This is assuming that the slide itself will physically fit on the frame rails...correctly. And assuming that the tolerances in the frame's stop surface and rear barrel lug don't stack up in the wrong direction and cause a linkdown timing problem...AND assuming that the barrel unlock timing isn't
thrown outta kilter by the locations/dimensions/tolerances centered around the slidestop crosspin, lower lug link pin hole, and the specs on the lower lug itself.

I've done caliber swaps via top-end replacement...from 9mm to .45 caliber.
Three in fact. One went smoothly and only took a couple of hours. One
took two days of nearly having to redesign the whole works...The third was a
.45 to .38 Super swap that never did run right. It would tick along for 2-3 hundred rounds and go into fits...then straighten up just as suddenly, and nobody seemed to know why except the gun. I could almost hear ol John Moses snickerin' at me from somewhere...

Save yourself some headaches...and possibly a gun...and just buy a .45 ACP pistol.

Just my tuppence worth...YMMV

 

[wintermute76]

Thanks Tuner, that 's about what I was thinking. I"ll see if I can just get rid of it and pick up the Springer .45

 

[brickeyee]

I have made a couple dozen switch tops, all with fully ramped barrels. Most are 45/38 super sets. It takes some tweaking to get everything right, but it can be done. With a full length guide rod the entire upper slides off and the second caliber slides on. Each set has a seperate slide stop. It is probably cheaper to just buy a second gun.

 

[wintermute76]

Thanks for the help guys, I"ll probably go the second gun route. Bad thing is, I was being drawn to the dark side and took a look at a Glock