Kimber Tactical Entry II: The Frame

Yet another month of hiatus for me and this blog. Once again, this post should've made it to this blog sooner but then again...no excuses.

This post will cover the step by step process of how I built the Kimber Tactical Entry II. Basically, this is the same as the process I used in building my Custom Covert II so this will be in less detail. 

Now onto the build.

The first thing to do is to remove the mainspring housing pin of the Night Warrior.

Then the mainspring housing is removed. After that, the hammer spring and the plunger can be removed from the housing.

I used the Nova mainspring housing that I installed in the Custom Covert II. The original Night Warrior hammer spring and plunger was installed into it. I removed the grub screw that holds the lanyard loop to install the steel magwell that was included in the Hurricane conversion kit.

It took a lot of time to install the magwell into the Nova mainspring housing. At first I thought it wasn't a good match but after so many hammering it fit OK. When I helped my friend who did the same custom work on his Night Warrior, we also experienced the same difficulty installing the magwell into the Night Warrior original mainspring housing.

After dealing with the magwell, the grip safety and thumb safeties were removed from the frame.

Then the grip panels were taken out next and the plunger assembly was removed.

The main frame screw was then undone.

As well as the side screw of the frame.

The magazine release was taken out.

The magazine release screw and spring was transferred to the steel magazine release included in the conversion kit.

The three-finger spring was then removed from the frame.

Next removed were the frame pins.

With the pins and screws gone, the inner chassis can be removed easily. The trigger assembly was also taken out of the original frame.

By removing the cover on the chassis, the hammer and sear can be accessed.

The original sear was replaced by the steel sear that was included in the hammer set.

The original hammer assembly was taken apart and the original hammer strut was installed into the Kimber type hammer.

After assembling the hammer, it was installed into the chassis.

The aluminum trigger from the conversion kit replaced the original trigger.

The trigger assembly was then installed on the Tactical Entry frame.

The chassis came in next.

The plunger set was inserted into its slot in the frame.

The Kimber grip panels were screwed to keep the plunger into position. (They will be removed later when the mainspring housing is to be installed because they cover the hole where the mainspring housing pin goes in.)

The frame pins were put into place.

The side frame screw was placed back.

Then the chassis was completely held into the frame with the inner frame screw.

The mainspring housing, grip safety and thumb safeties (all Nova Kimber types) were then finally installed.

The Tactical Entry II slide was then installed into the frame. It actually took no filing at all to install the slide into the frame. The slide was tight fit into the frame but just a few slides and racks to lap the slide into the frame and the gun cycles smoothly (this is a complete opposite of what I experienced with the Covert). The only problem I had was that the magwell was positioned not very good into the magazine slot and it somehow hinders the magazine from being loaded into the pistol. I had to file a lot of metal to have the magazine seat into position. This was not the case with my friend when he installed the magwell into the original Night Warrior mainspring housing. I used a Nova.

Kimber Tactical Entry II: The Slide

I had a bit of hesitation on doing this custom work because of my experience building the Custom Covert II. Before I worked on this gun, I built two other pistols (they're not 1911s) just to take away my mind off the Covert. It helped doing just that. After the Covert, the next two custom builds I did were very easy. I'm not telling yet which model of pistol I worked on -- I'm not a fan of them then...but I am now!

So after those two other builds, I felt I got my confidence, momentum and groove running again so I decided to sit down and get back to action with the Tactical Entry build.

Being a 1911, and basically using the same brand/kind of kit -- only a different design/model -- the process is just the same  as what I did in the Custom Covert II. But this time I'll try to make it simpler and less detailed.

To sart off, the gun is stripped by removing the slide stop lever and the slide is taken out from the front.

The barrel plug, recoil spring and the spring guide rod was removed from the slide assembly. These were put in a pouch, labeled, and put away in the storage box.

The barrel bushing and the outer barrel assembly was then taken out of the slide. Notice that the barrel bushing is the 1911A1 bushing and not the original Night Warrior silver barrel bushing. I replaced it to get the exact look of the Tactical Entry II.

The hop chamber-inner barrel assembly was pulled out of the outer barrel.

By undoing the two screws, one half of the hop chamber can be removed to access the hop mechanism and the inner barrel.

The hop bar and the inner barrel-hop rubber assembly was then detached from the hop chamber to be replaced by the Nineball inner barrel and hop rubber.

The whole inner barrel-hop chamber assembly was put back together.

The stainless steel outer barrel and chamber was assembled with the o-ring that comes with the kit.

The inner barrel-hop chamber assembly is now inserted into the outer barrel assembly.

By removing the screw at the rear of the slide, and the screw on top of the rear sight, the blowback housing can be taken out of the slide. With a bit of a force to widen the gap in the slide cavity, the blowback unit can easily come out.

The photo below shows the blowback housing and the loading nozzle already separated. The blowback housing, screw and loading nozzle spring will all be kept in storage and replaced.

This is now the replacement blowback housing. It is an Airsoft Surgeon BBH and it comes with its own screw and loading nozzle spring. Also shown in the photo is the loading nozzle spring guide that came in with the Tactical Entry conversion kit.

After positioning the rear sight in the slide, the whole blowback unit was then installed into the aluminum Hurricane slide. It is again a simple drop-in fit. The BBH was then screwed into the slide to keep it from moving.

The outer barrel assembly was then put into place.

And after placing the new full-length guide rod and barrel plug assembly along with the 1911A1 barrel bushing and the upgraded recoil spring that was included in the Hurricane kit, here now is the finished Kimber Tactical Entry slide.

Wired out.

Kimber Tactical Entry II: Internal Parts

I have already discussed the internal parts that I usually would replace in customizing an airsoft 1911 so I'm just going to do some sort of recall on these parts for the Tactical Entry build.

The first major component that I would replace is the blowback housing or blowback unit. Just like the Covert, I used the Airsoft Surgeon Super Lightweight Speed Blowback Housing for the Tactical Entry because it is about 50% lighter than the original BBH of TM.

The next internal part I replaced is the hop-rubber. I used the Laylax-Nineball hop rubber because it is believed by many to provide better sealing. Based on the Covert that I built, this hop rubber works like magic as just a small turn of the hop towards the "on" position from the "zero/off" position gave me a very straight, consistent BB flight.

Now here comes the interesting part. When I built the Covert, my M.E.U. was already using a PDI 6.01 Palsonite inner barrel. After finishing the build and testing the gun out, the Palsonite barrel-Nineball hop rubber combination works wonders. In this Tactical Entry build, I planned to use the Nineball 6.03 inner barrel to see which combination works better. (I will post the results in a different entry)

Again, like the Covert, this custom build used other internal upgrade parts that are already included in the kits. The upgraded recoil spring is included in the Hurricane conversion kit and the steel sear is included in the Nova hammer set.

In my next post, I will discuss the steps in building the slide!

Just a special thanks to all my readers, followers, and supporters...even though there's not that many of you yet. Thanks!

Wired out.