filing in holes on a frame

[handishooter]

I recently bought a Colt Delta Elite for a really cheap price, it was set up as a competition gun. The work was done by stewart arms. It really is a great shooting pistol I am going to make some changes to it. It had the frame drilled for a scope mount.   I intend to fill the holes , and then refinish it, I was thinking of using my tig. Has anyone done something similar? Any advice?

[Frank46]

Why not just use the proper size plug screws to plug the holes?. You just might want to see just how accurate it is with a scope. And although I know heat is localized when using tig, I would think that you would get different colors
when bluing the slide. Which would show up worse than screws. Frank

[handishooter]

I was thinking of using plug screws but with 5 holes on each side of the frame, i am not sure how it will look. I am going to try it and see. I am thinking of filling them and then going with a black nickle from Fords, that might cover the welds better.  The gun is very accurate both with the scope and with the iron sights, I just don't care for scoped handguns. For what I paid for this, it will make a nice project and I wont be into it for a lot of money.

[Frank46]

Hey, that's a really nice looking rig. Enjoy, Frank

[gunnut69]

That's a high pressure round and the frame takes a lot of abuse.. It is a design running at the upper limit of it's ability and altering the heat treat would be a bad choice.. A tig or mig would be the first choice for the operation and could be OK. There are a lot of holes to fill and they get fairly close to the barrel puivot hole and the abutment inside the frame.. If you decide to go forward use heat sinks where ever possible to control heat flow and know there will likely be ramifications as to color when rebluing unless rust bluiing or plating the piece.. Personnely I would install headed filler screws and call it good.. It would retain the option down the road, save money and eleminate any possibility of altering the heat treat.