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I have a friend named Lester in South Georgia that I first met in early '83 shooting IPSC matches. Back then, he shot a Bill Wilson built Combat Commander from a Milt SParks Summer Special (and he held his own pretty well). Over the years, guns and matches came and went and Lester finally retired his old Commander as other guns were aquired and customized. It had suffered a lot of wear and a few frame cracks from firing countless thousands of hardball equivalent reloads. After a while, it became a source for a quick part to keep another gun running. Eventually, it was simply a box of old unusable parts (and a lot of good memories) taking up room in his safe.

Lester and I have always enjoyed talking about cool old stuff. It could be fast cars one time, neat pistols the next, firearms classes another. I finally figured out the other day, what the allure came from. It's stuff that was cool to you before a point was reached that your wallet could indulge in such. Often, by the time you can afford it, it isn't to be had anymore, or trends have changed and there's a new cool widget that captures your fancy.

When I was shooting IPSC, I had a new family to support and truthfully had to be inventive to afford match fees and primers. No custom built pistol for me (which started the 'smithing thing). Hence, the appreciation for custom pistols from my youth.

One day Lester called me and said he was shipping me a box of parts that used to be his old Wilson Commander. There was nothing left that he could readily use and he thought I might salvage something from it. When the box arrived, I opened it and saw right away that my friend was right - he had got the good out of most everything there. The frame was cracked, the barrel was cracked in one of the lower lugs, the slide to frame fit had more up & down play than I've ever seen. A lot of parts were missing and some of the workmanship wasn't really the kind that is done now days.

Well, I set the box over on a far corner of the work bench and got back to what I was doing. Before I knew it, the box was back in front of me and I was giving it a second look. After a lot of consideration, I decided that maybe a pistol could be restored out of this mess. I scrounged here and there for missing parts, always trying to keep two things in mind. One - that I not build this into something modern and Two - that it be restored the way Lester had it built to begin with.

Here's the outcome:

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The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

To say that Lester is a colorful character is an understatement. In the world of continual changes, he's the constant in the universe. In a way he's a very lucky guy. Having John rebuilt his old "friend" to a new but original condition after giving up on this beat up gun. He's owned guns built by Wilson (probably by Bill himself when he was younger), Liebenberg, several by John Harrison and one Springfield GSP probably built by Ted Yost. I met Lester around 85 and he was shooting this gun in that Summer Special against guys shooting Wilson or Plaxco pin guns from Rogers or Davis speed rigs. He held his own with the Commander. I probably still have 3x5 color pictures of him shooting this gun.

Very nice John...

So how'd you fix the cracked frame? Did you weld it up or just replace it?

Good to see what you've done for your friend.

Very nice. Ya done it good. It looks like it belongs in 1981...but would be welcome in my Summer Special right now!

Nicely done John

Lester is a Lucky guy!!

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If You're Not the Lead Dog, The View Never Changes.

Great story and even better project idea John.

To my thinking there is a distinct difference between a finely turned out piece of shooting hardware and a handgun that has the familiar feel from a place in time. To me that differnce is soul. The commander that you resurected could have been reproduced but never replaced. Soul is the difference between a posession and a beautiful Colt that holds many memories.

Good for Lester and good for you John. The owner of this handgun could easily own a '66-'67 candy apple red Chevelle SS.

Plenty of soul.

Yeah, but he doesn't.

That pistol is great, and it reminds me that I have one of Lester's (done by John) old guns. It is a two-tone Series '70 Government Model that looks much like the pistol above (BoMar rear, Pachmayr MSH, rowel hammer, Wilson ambi) -- only with a heck of a lot more wear.







It is also the pistol I shoot the best, and it really helped me last weekend.

Great job, John, and Lester!!!

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Scott

A few details about the restoration are probably in order. The frame had been cracked and welded twice (once on each side of the dust cover) before it came to live with me. The third crack was in the rail above the slide stop lobe's window, so a trip to the mill fixed 'dat. The welding on the left side of the dust cover had a pretty strong color mismatch, maybe from weird filler wire and took some spot annealing to tone it down. The stippling stopped pretty low on the front strap and was sorta sparse in coverage, so I filled and raised the pattern to what felt good to me. I decided to not raise the front strap - trigger guard radius to help maintain it's period look.
Missing parts included the grips, MSH, beavertail and thumb safety. I knew it had to have a Pachmayr main spring housing because A) everything Lester ever owned had one, B) Wilson used them a lot and C) Pachmayr doesn't make them anymore. Diligant searching finally turned up one on a used pistol coming in for custom work, so I grabbed it. The beavertail is a Wilson #66 donated by a customer. It was originally fit so that the grip safety was blocked by a shelf at the top of the frame radius that kept the beavertail from swinging up. I kept that feature and just ground in a nice comfortable blending of beavertail to frame on the sides. That part doesn't look so original, but the way I did it is so much more comfortable than the original shape.
I used a Wilson ambi safety as it mimics the Swenson ambi used back then, plus it helped fit the beavertail's frame radius fit due to the larger shaft. I scouted around for a set of period original Colt grips and found these. The rear of slide serrations were cut shallow and at 40 lpi, so I filed them off and recut the slide at 50 lpi to match the Bo-Mar. I added 30 lpi serrations around the top of the slide and I kept the tenon mounted front sight.
I think the main reason this pistol was parked was it was just plain worn out. The slide to frame fit had so much vertical movement that I was told you could pull the slide out of battery, lift up on it and that would allow the disconnector to reengage the sear and you could then drop the hammer! The frame rails were welded and recut to solve this and a Bar-Sto barrel was fit because that was often used by Wilson's shop back then. I did a moderate carry bevel on all the corners, more to even them out and true them than anything else.
I resisted temptation to add further embellishment as I felt the mission was accomplished and finished the pistol with 600 grit polished & blued upper and a matte electroless nickel lower. While Metaloy hard chrome would have been the proper finish for this pistol's lower, the Metalife E-Nickel did a better job hiding the discoloration from the previous welding repairs.
I'm really pleased with the end result. The Commander shoots nice, tight groups with 100% reliability. It handles great, pleases the eye and means a lot to me to have the heritage that it does.


And No, Lester. You can't have it back!

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shop.HarrisonCustom.com
www.HarrisonCustom.com

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

Nice job, John. I love the look of E-Nickel and polished blue. A classic combo.

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"The most effective armor is to keep out of range"-Italian proverb

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Y'all start to see the trend in Lester's taste? Colt, Bomar, two tone, Swenson like ambi safety and Pachmayr MSH. Notice the resemblance to the Pachmayr Combat Special?

When he showed me his latest H-D creation, I thought my head was going to explode. He had a Heinie rear sight, not a Bomar.

Tastefully redone John! You ARE the man!

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Classic Custom

Found a not so high quality 3x5 with accidental double exposure taken in 1987 of the gun owner in a local monthly IPSC match (Warner Robins Practical Shooting Club). John, you might remember the club. The gun he shot might not have been this commander but it's a Colt, two tone with Bomar. Pretty sure it was a Wilson Combat, I think it was their #130 conversion. He was in his 20s then, and still today can smoke the El Prez. with the best of them.

I can attest for the crack frame ! He handload his 230gr. cherry bomb ammo to at least 205 power factor.

I was reviewing this post tonight for the first time. I missed when it first came our. I really like the look of the commander very tasteful.
I have pick up a stock lightweight series 70 Colt I'm thinking of have some custom work do on.
I was at a local shop and I found a Springfield like the Colt pictured.
The Springfield is a commander size with a light weight frame burried Bomars rounded Barsto barrel, modified beavertail, solid trigger, trigger job. I don't know who did the work but it looks pretty good.

I can purchase the gun for just over 600.00. What do you LTW posters think? Do you think it would be better to have the work some work done on the Colt or just pick up the Springfield.

TJ