[Kawboy65]

I have had this mixmaster "IthaColt" for about 10 years. I always knew it was just a parts gun, but I have also wondered if there was any value in the parts, especially the frame?

-The frame is a Colt commercial that dates to the middle of the 1941 production run.
-The slide is obviously a USGI Ithaca, so nothing special there
-I believe the small parts are all period correct, look fired blue, even if not correct to the Colt frame.
-The mainspring housing is steel checkered, possibly vintage non-A1?
-The barrel only has "29617" on the hood, and an "I" just in front of the link. I have no idea what it is.
-No idea what the black plastic (bakelite?) grips are from.

Is a 1941 Commercial Colt collectable enough to warrant a restoration? I have no issue with investing a few thousand dollars into a pistol if the end result is worth what I have into it. I have no intention of turning it into a money-making investment, just trying to preserve a collectable pistol if the effort is warranted. I think of it as a classic car, "They should be restored, not crushed".

 

[mlin]

In my opinion, not a good candidate for restoration. Slide, barrel, hammer, MSH, grips are not original. If you can find period correct parts, it will already cost you tons of money before you send to restorer. If it was mine, I will keep it as is.

 

[1saxman]

The frame looks great, maybe original finish. I'd say your main problem will be finding the right slide, and the next will be finding the right barrel. Maybe take it in two phases; first, confirming everything you have as correct or not, and finding the right parts, including slide and barrel. With any luck, you might find a slide with original finish, so the 'restoration' idea may be moot, unless you would insist on having it look new. Then the second phase would be a restoration if you wanted to go there. I would guess the first phase will cost $1500 and the second phase, if taken, would be around $2500, so that's not really an extraordinary amount.
I think the magazine would be fully satin-blued with this on the bottom:

 

[stan2]

I have had this mixmaster "IthaColt" for about 10 years. I always knew it was just a parts gun, but I have also wondered if there was any value in the parts, especially the frame?

-The frame is a Colt commercial that dates to the middle of the 1941 production run.
-The slide is obviously a USGI Ithaca, so nothing special there
-I believe the small parts are all period correct, look fired blue, even if not correct to the Colt frame.
-The mainspring housing is steel checkered, possibly vintage non-A1?
-The barrel only has "29617" on the hood, and an "I" just in front of the link. I have no idea what it is.
-No idea what the black plastic (bakelite?) grips are from.

Is a 1941 Commercial Colt collectable enough to warrant a restoration? I have no issue with investing a few thousand dollars into a pistol if the end result is worth what I have into it. I have no intention of turning it into a money-making investment, just trying to preserve a collectable pistol if the effort is warranted. I think of it as a classic car, "They should be restored, not crushed".
View attachment 605319
View attachment 605320

Kawboy65,

The original slide was numbered to the receiver,...most likely, impossible to find.

Is the receiver cut for the Swartz Safety? If so, a difficult Slide to find. If not, you have one of the receivers in the Swartz Safety range, that was not cut,...maybe a Brazilian army?

Best Regards,

 

[1saxman]

Ouch. Yes, you'd have to take any correct slide you could get.
Swartz safety; it is working with a non-safety slide now.
Brazilian army - that could explain the South American-style barrel numbering.
These are additional obstacles to the project but that receiver really looks good. I mean, if it were Parkerized or had been buffed to death, no way. But as it is, it would be a beautiful pistol with an appropriate slide and full-checkered walnut grips.

 

[dsk]

If that were my pistol I'd try finding a blued Colt slide of some sort to put on it, but wouldn't have any illusions of being able to make it correct/matching again. As the others said there was only one slide that had the same serial number, and it's obviously gone. It's a shooter at this point, but an interesting one nonetheless.

 

[Kawboy65]

Kawboy65,

The original slide was numbered to the receiver,...most likely impossible to find.

Is the receiver cut for the Swartz Safety? If so, a difficult Slide to find. If not, you have one of the receivers in the Swartz Safety range, that was not cut,...maybe a Brazilian army?

Best Regards,

It is not cut for the Swartz safety. I tried doing some rudimentary research when I got the pistol years ago, and the Brazilian army idea did pop up. I guess there is no true way of knowing unless I sent for a letter from Colt. I'm not that curious about that at this point, but I have spent more money on more stupid curiosities in the past.

 

[Kawboy65]

Ouch. Yes, you'd have to take any correct slide you could get.
Swartz safety; it is working with a non-safety slide now.
Brazilian army - that could explain the South American-style barrel numbering.
These are additional obstacles to the project but that receiver really looks good. I mean, if it were Parkerized or had been buffed to death, no way. But as it is, it would be a beautiful pistol with an appropriate slide and full-checkered walnut grips.

That's really the reason why I was giving the idea some serious thought; the receiver looks good and appears (to me) to be the original finish. There seems to be a lot of love for the pre-war pistols, and I think it's interesting being a 1941 Commercial when military production was ramping up. I'd love to find a correct-looking slide in the same condition for it, and call it "done". I'm guessing that would be a rather ambitious undertaking. Even though I own many Colts, I've never attempted to source "older" parts so I don't really know what is out there or where to look.

 

[Retired AF CE]

I would shoot it! Eventually I would look for a slide that was a hardened Government replacement slide or an early 1950’s era slide and get a good barrel. It would be a fun gun.

 

[1911crazy]

The way the ww2 vintage market is today with a mix master 1911 pistols you have a sell option or keep it and restore it.? Is it worth restoring money wise? You can buy probably a new SA GI Mil spec clone and a new Auto Ordnance us army clone if you sold that one. Nothing ww2 seems to be all matching anyway.

 

[stan2]

No Swartz cut,...that narrows it down to very few organizations that ordered them that way.

Well,...there is a few of these out there,---they Are Period, and maybe it shipped with similar markings. ?

And, maybe the barrel is from one of these ?

 

[Kawboy65]

No Swartz cut,...that narrows it down to very few organizations that ordered them that way.

Well,...there is a few of these out there,---they Are Period, and maybe it shipped with similar markings. ?

View attachment 605365

View attachment 605366


And, maybe the barrel is from one of these ?

View attachment 605381

View attachment 605382

That is really interesting. Did all of the US Commercial Colts from this era have the Swartz safety, making the non-Swartz guns South American exports? Or is that just one of many other possibilities? I wouldn't think that many Brazilian guns would make their way back up here, but then again I suppose anything could have happened when the import laws were less strict.

I did see a google pic of a Brazilian gun with the same looking black grips that mine has. I know that it doesn't mean anything...who knows what was in the box of parts that the guy had who put this gun together. The Ithaca slide has British Nitro proof marks on it, so that is a story in itself.

 

[dsk]

Per Clawson's book on the Government Models, pistols manufactured with the Swartz safety were sporadic until past the C199000 range when they became more commonplace. However not all pistols were equipped with the safety. He specifically said that pistols sold to Brazil's government under contract didn't have it. In total probably less than 1500 pistols were manufactured with the safety. Oddly enough most pistols I've seen with the safety cuts were commercial pistols or components transferred to military production during World War Two.

 

[Kawboy65]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think I am going to look for a slide and barrel that would appear more correct with the rest of the gun. That, or put it back in the safe and forget about it for another 10 years.

 

[Infidel525]

It is not cut for the Swartz safety. I tried doing some rudimentary research when I got the pistol years ago, and the Brazilian army idea did pop up. I guess there is no true way of knowing unless I sent for a letter from Colt. I'm not that curious about that at this point, but I have spent more money on more stupid curiosities in the past.

Might be worth having this lettered to see where it originally went?

Sent from my SM-A716V using Tapatalk

 

[Sergio Natali]

IMO you've got a nice shooter, I would keep it as it is without wasting money on it.