Blown Barrel

[Pops1911]

JMHO. I've flirted with Kimbers but never bought one. They seem over priced for what you get. I am an old 1911 fan "boy". Let's face it. A 1911 is a 1911. They all work the same and the shorter the barrel the more likely one is to have serious issues with normal operations. There are smiths out there that can work magic on the basic 1911. I salute their talents and skills. Some companies, meh, not so much. I will stick with my Springers, Sigs and Rugers. Good luck OP on getting your little Kimber up to speed again.

 

[Goosebrown]

I am not a 1911 guy but I had a yen for one a while back and tried as many as I could get and I have to say the Remington R1 had a great feel and excellent trigger for me. Worth a look.

 

[Koda]

its funny just the other day I was on Kimbers website to check out what they have, all pretty guns but dayam they are expensive for what they are. Crazy they have major QC problems.

 

[fxdc]

That just sucks!
You get it new? What barrel did you get to replace it with?

Get one from my buddy's outfit KKM Precision. over sized Gunsmith fit.

Or a Barstow either will do you well!

Could never get myself to spend 1k or more on a Kimber, when I did I went with SA. But did just get my 1st Kimber , the Micro 9. Hope I don't see this happen with it.

If I do i will either send it back if still under warranty or call KKM as they do custom orders, like they did for the Army and Marine Corp Marksmanship Units.

Keep us informed on your repairs, sounds like the barrel was inferior and not fitted and linked up correctly.

Good luck!

 

[Ura-Ki]

I got a Bastow Barrel for it, smith to fit! Also got the prerequisite links to fine tune the length to prevent hammering the frame again!
I did some measuring of the factory Barrel, and found what I think is the reason it failed, Kimber cut it too deep/thin around the locking lugs, and removed too much forward of the lugs and the area behind the bushing surface, so I will start slow and measure lots and see if I can get it to run with out having to cut it so much!
I think this one can be salvaged! I am thinking that I will really fine tune it for carry use, and see if I can get a deal on ceracoating it, mainly to prevent rust issues and to get it all one single color like it should have been! It's always ran well and accurate, But this shouldn't have happend! I sent Kimber a letter, and pictures, as well as told them about spreading the word about there products far and wide, will see what kind of response I get back!

 

[ZigZagZeke]

Sadly this happens. Of course no one wants to be the one it happens too. That Kimber was just a total fail in the QC department. Not sure what the hell I would do with it. Have you priced out a new top end for it compared to the cost of fixing it? If it's not too much more I think I would try that. Then once all good have it re finished with something better. No matter how you go about it you are of course going to take a loss by the time you sell. They (Kimber) do of course turn out a LOT of working pistols or they would no longer be in business.
As to finish this is why I love stainless for carry. The stainless used for guns will rust but it's a lot tougher and takes a beating much better. Good luck with the Kimber, hopefully you can get it running and get rid of it and move on to something that will not be as frustrating.

Any stainless steel will rust if it's contaminated with ferrous steel (shavings, grinding dust, grinding wheel formerly used on ferrous). Something to keep in mind when in the workshop.

 

[Ura-Ki]

This one is not the stainless version, it's the black coated steel with stainless barrel and alloy frame. The new replacement barrel is not stainless, I want to get rid of the shine! I am going to leave a little extra sticking out past the muzzle and back cut it to help "Guide" it into the holster like the PPK does. I also going to de horn the entire slide to get rid of all those wonderful square corners, making it nice and slick! I think I am also going to cut the slide serrations a little deeper and extend them a little bit into the round top of the frame, and finally I am going to fine tune the rear sight fit to the slide, it looks kind of half azz the way it sits now! If she shoots as good as she did before all this, and I can get it tuned right, I am thinking I might just keep it! It will be just like brand new then! Will see how it goes!

 

[Alexx1401]

Any stainless steel will rust if it's contaminated with ferrous steel (shavings, grinding dust, grinding wheel formerly used on ferrous). Something to keep in mind when in the workshop.

There is a LOT of different kinds of "Stainless Steel". Many don't realize how this works. The alloy that works for making firearms is not the same as normally used in table ware. Back when they first started making firearms out of stainless MANY ran around saying you could throw one in the sound and later get it back. This was long before the net and most of them did not want to hear it when I would tell them that's not true. Later some of the gun rags got in on it and started showing some photos of what happens to the gun if allowed to be abused like that. The stainless alloys (still called stainless steel) used for firearms has come a long way and is much better today. Still not like the tableware but it does hold up better than a lot of the other finishes used on firearms.

 

[Alexx1401]

I got a Bastow Barrel for it, smith to fit! Also got the prerequisite links to fine tune the length to prevent hammering the frame again!
I did some measuring of the factory Barrel, and found what I think is the reason it failed, Kimber cut it too deep/thin around the locking lugs, and removed too much forward of the lugs and the area behind the bushing surface, so I will start slow and measure lots and see if I can get it to run with out having to cut it so much!
I think this one can be salvaged! I am thinking that I will really fine tune it for carry use, and see if I can get a deal on ceracoating it, mainly to prevent rust issues and to get it all one single color like it should have been! It's always ran well and accurate, But this shouldn't have happend! I sent Kimber a letter, and pictures, as well as told them about spreading the word about there products far and wide, will see what kind of response I get back!

Hopefully you can make it a good pistol. You of course should not have had too but another conversation. Sadly I doubt Kimber will do much or anything at this point. Since now the pistol is being worked on by others they would be worried about starting something. Now they may just to try to keep a customer happy and we can all hope. All in all it's a damn shame and I hope you can make something out of it to make you happy with it. The idea's you are doing sound really good. When done you will have enough into it that to me it would be worth just keeping and using as a carry piece.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

There is a LOT of different kinds of "Stainless Steel". Many don't realize how this works. The alloy that works for making firearms is not the same as normally used in table ware. Back when they first started making firearms out of stainless MANY ran around saying you could throw one in the sound and later get it back. This was long before the net and most of them did not want to hear it when I would tell them that's not true. Later some of the gun rags got in on it and started showing some photos of what happens to the gun if allowed to be abused like that. The stainless alloys (still called stainless steel) used for firearms has come a long way and is much better today. Still not like the tableware but it does hold up better than a lot of the other finishes used on firearms.

Here's what I'm talking about:

Stainless steels are corrosion resistant because there is a high percentage (16 to 36%) of chromium (Cr) is present in these steels. This element is present in sufficient quantity, that, when exposed to oxidizing media (acids, caustics, water, air, etc.), it forms a thin, tightly-adhering and impervious oxide layer (predominantly CrO) that stops further corrosion. In this sense, stainless steels are very much like aluminum in that aluminum also forms an oxide layer that prevents further corrosion of the aluminum. An aluminum oxide layer is different from that which forms on stainless steel because it can become thick enough to form a glassy surface on aluminum that has been exposed to the atmosphere for many years; the oxide layer on stainless steel never gets so thick that it becomes visible to the unaided eye.

While austenitic stainless steels also contain considerable nickel (8 to 25%), it is the chromium that is responsible for formation of the oxide layer that prevents corrosion. The chromium must be dissolved uniformly in the steel's matrix of iron in order for the steel to become "stainless."

Rust is formed on the surface of stainless steel when a condition develops in which the metal molecules at the surface are not sufficiently alloyed with chromium to create or maintain the required oxide layer. Contrary to popular opinion, surface rusting does not occur when stainless steel is "sensitized" since the bulk of the metal has adequate chromium to prevent surface rusting; sensitized stainless steel only corrodes along the grain boundaries. Rusting phenomenon discussed in this paper is a surface phenomenon only.

The simplest condition under which rusting can occur on stainless steel is when a piece of ordinary carbon or low-allysteel is rubbed against the surface of an otherwise corrosion-resistant piece of stainless steel. The iron from the ordinary steel will rub off onto the stainless steel surface as a film of unalloyed steel, and, after exposure to moisture in the atmosphere for a few days, that unalloyed steel film will form ugly rust. This happens because the unalloyed steel film on the stainless steel has little or no chromium, so the film transforms to ordinary "red rust". Once the shallow film of iron that has "contaminated" the stainless steel surface has oxidized, corrosion stops provided the stainless steel surface remains exposed to the atmos- phere and is not wetted on a nearly continuous basis. The rusted surface looks bad, but, the chromium in the stainless steel under the rust film forms a suitable corro- sion-resistant oxide layer, and further corrosion does not continue once that film of unalloyed steel turns to rust.

When ordinary steel is rubbed off on stainless steel, the material which is transferred to the stainless steel is generally referred to as "free iron." This kind of "contamina- tion" of stainless steel is also known by the misnomer of "carbon contamination." This term is a misnomer because it is not the carbon that causes the corrosion but the un- alloyed iron from which the steel is made.

Corrosion of "free iron" on stainless steel is always faster than corrosion of the unal- loyed steel itself because the free iron "contamination" is anodic to the stainless steel, so it corrodes to protect the stainless steel, just like zinc corrodes to protect carbon steel when zinc is used as galvanizing.

A second means of forming a rust film on stainless steel occurs during welding when using a process that depends on flux for shielding, such as SAW and GMAW using flux-cored wire. These fluxes tend to be easy-to-remove or self-peeling, and, although the weld surface may look clean, there is a thin residual layer of iron-rich material on the surface. This layer rusts easily if the weld metal surface is not abrasively or chemically cleaned after welding. The nature of this rust is similar to that formed by contact contamination as discussed in the above paragraph.

Good fabrication practice avoids allowing stainless steels to come in contact with or- dinary iron or steel, such as work tables, lifting tools, storage racks, steel turning rolls, steel truck beds and chains, steel fork lifts, etc. Iron and steel dust, such as may be created by grinding, cutting, blast cleaning, etc., should be kept away from areas where stainless steel is being fabricated, since that dust may settle on otherwise non- contaminating surfaces where they will be picked up by the stainless steel.

Cleaning and grinding tools, such as grinding wheels and wire brushes that have been used on carbon or low alloy steel should not be used subsequently on stainless steels. Only stainless steel wire brushes should be used on stainless steel.

- Sperko Engineering Services, Inc. © December, 2014

 

[Swedish K]

If I recall correctly Tacoma PD carry/carried Kimbers and when in training they had a few that just went click when they pulled the trigger - those guys must have freaked out that they had been carrying a paperweight for a duty weapon for who knows how long...

 

[Alexx1401]

Here's what I'm talking about:

- Sperko Engineering Services, Inc. © December, 2014

Not really sure what all that was about. All I keep trying to warn gun owners about is the stainless your gun is made of is not the same as the stainless your tableware is made of. Many still can be found who "think" that a stainless gun does not rust. They sadly then find out the hard way that yes they do. Sweat from being carried is the most common way. I still prefer the stainless due to the way it's harder to get it to rust from carry and normally far easier to clean up when caught.

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Ura-Ki I apologize for not having time to read your original post; it's been crazy at my house.

Did you burn your lips?

 

[Ura-Ki]

No lip burning!

 

[ZigZagZeke]

Not really sure what all that was about. All I keep trying to warn gun owners about is the stainless your gun is made of is not the same as the stainless your tableware is made of. Many still can be found who "think" that a stainless gun does not rust. They sadly then find out the hard way that yes they do. Sweat from being carried is the most common way. I still prefer the stainless due to the way it's harder to get it to rust from carry and normally far easier to clean up when caught.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that after 50 years or so of working with stainless steel, my take is that it doesn't rust unless it is somehow contaminated with iron/mild steel. Stainless forms an oxidized coating, just like aluminum does, that is basically inert. Once it has been rubbed against ferrous steel or iron, or had grinding dust from ferrous steel or iron fall on it, or exposed to iron in some other way, it will stain and keep getting worse until it is decontaminated. But you have your own take on it, and I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise.

 

[Alexx1401]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that after 50 years or so of working with stainless steel, my take is that it doesn't rust unless it is somehow contaminated with iron/mild steel. Stainless forms an oxidized coating, just like aluminum does, that is basically inert. Once it has been rubbed against ferrous steel or iron, or had grinding dust from ferrous steel or iron fall on it, or exposed to iron in some other way, it will stain and keep getting worse until it is decontaminated. But you have your own take on it, and I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise.

You are using the term "stainless steel" as if it's all the same. This is what many gun owners either don't get, or just don't want to get. There is no one steel named stainless. There are multiple alloys called stainless. Some will not rust. Some will. The alloys used to make guns ran into some problems early on with galling on moving parts. They got around this soon. They do not make any guns out of stainless that do not rust. For some reason this seems to always set some people off. Have to guess they don't want to believe it for some reason. Matters not to me but I don't want to see someone take this as truth. Then find out the new gun they bought is rusting.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

For some reason this seems to always set some people off.

Probably because it is not true. As for various grades of stainless, yes there are many. 416 is generally used in barrels and 316 for things like trigger guards. 304 is not as corrosion resistant as those others, but still will not "rust" unless exposed to iron on its surface. There is a whole science to compounding and heat treating stainless steel. I'm not going to explain it all here. It would be pointless.

 

[joken]

I have three Kimbers and they are all top notch. I've had a lot of guns over time and I'm keeping my Kimbers