TM - MEU 1911 - To Customise or Not To....

[Old School Punk]

Hi Guys; I just bought myself a used Tokyo Marui - MEU 1911 GBB pistol, and I am wondering if when I receive the gun, will I want to do any customization to it or not?

I know that this is kind of a stupid topic, as I haven't even held this thing in my hands yet, but I was just wondering what you guys would do?

I have seen lots of "metal" or "aluminum" slide and lower kits that you can get for various TM 1911 guns, but I don't know if they are worth the time and effort and money, or if a person would be better off keeping it stock?

This will be my first ever Tokyo Marui product, and I have to say that I am a bit sceptical about the "plastic" construction of the gun.

I hear that TMs plastic is very good, but somehow to me it just can't be as good as metal, right?

I would love to hear your opinions on this. Has anyone done a metal kit on a TM gun and regreted doing it? Any horror stories?

If you did the upgrade and were happy with results, I would like to hear about that too. Any recomendations on which brand of kit you used etc.

Anyway thanks for reading my post and I look forward to hearing your opion on this topic.

Later

Gordo

[TaroBear]

I've been doing some research about upgrading mine, had it for about a month. The plastic on TMs are in fact really awesome, but the MEU is really weighted towards the grip and magazines. The manual states that it's not too much lighter than the real thing, but I think I'd like it to be a bit heavier. Most of the parts of the gun you'd normally touch with your finger are already metal, however. I'd say you should probably try it out for a bit first before deciding to put metal on it, since I could easily see using it just fine without any metal at all. Anything worth putting on the gun would probably cost you almost as much as a brand new factory stock MEU.

[ShelledPants]

If you are a gamer and not a collector, use the TM stock. If you want bling and have the coin to splurge on making it metal AND gameable, go ahead.

But try it stock, you'll be surprised.

[RacingManiac]

Originally Posted by TaroBear

Anything worth putting on the gun would probably cost you almost as much as a brand new factory stock MEU.

That essentially is the whole GBB pistol thing in a nutshell...you might think its outrageous to put a $3-400 kit on a $2-300 pistol(am I close on the Canadian pricing? lol), but it is unavoidable to have a CNC machine part to be price competitive injection molded plastic....

Generally speaking:
Metal kits:

Good:
Feels awesome
Sounds awesome
Increases durability for running more powerful gas(most GBB are designed for duster, while most generally runs propane)
Option to turn a gun into something different from what it was


Not so good:
Cost
Fitment process(you mileage may vary)
Gas consumption

[m102404]

The fastest way to ruin a perfectly working GBB is to try to upgrade it.

It will work great out of the box.

********************
That said...the quest for a rockin' full metal pistol can result in pure awesomeness.

But many have gone down that road...then looked back at all the time, money and headaches and have said to themselves...."WHAT THE F*CK DID I START THIS FOR!?!!?"

[Zeonprime]

Talk to Illusion, GBB upgrades are his specialty I'm debating if I want to do any upgrades on my WE DW 4.3 myself.

[Slono]

Originally Posted by m102404

The fastest way to ruin a perfectly working GBB is to try to upgrade it.

It will work great out of the box.

********************
That said...the quest for a rockin' full metal pistol can result in pure awesomeness.

But many have gone down that road...then looked back at all the time, money and headaches and have said to themselves...."WHAT THE F*CK DID I START THIS FOR!?!!?"

Aye, your latter statement holds true to almost everybody, including myself. One thing you should know about installing aftermarket parts on perfectly working GBBs is that you have to expect something to go wrong. Your gun may not work for days, weeks, or in my case months (yeah I know, that's a little long) if you can't figure it out. Its a great learning process because you'll be able to make super L33T builds once you get the hang of it but its not for everybody.

If you just want to have fun with the bang bang part, don't customize. But if looks and feel matters to you, then give it a shot. The last thing I'm going to say is that if you buy cheap, you buy twice. Buy quality parts and you'll never have to worry about buying again.

[Eeyore]

Originally Posted by Zeonprime

Talk to Illusion, GBB upgrades are his specialty

Big ol +1, gave him my TM DW and its now a thing of beauty. I would put it against any race pistol with confidence.

[Old School Punk]

Most of the kits that I have seen are arount $150.00 US kind of thing.

Based on some of what I am hearing here is that would be considered a "low end" kit, and would probably not be worth the trouble eh.

I haven't even seen any $300 - $400 kits! That sounds pretty outragous for a kit to me.

Thanks for all the advice Gents, You Rock!

Keep'em coming if you have a tale to tell.

Gordo

[TaroBear]

Well, you'd never be able to get a full kit over the border yourself...the cheapest I've seen here in Canada are the Guarder kits for the MEU, clocking in over 200 already, and from what I've heard, Guarder metal kits aren't the greatest.

[RacingManiac]

Thats why I say Canadian price. Frame for 1911 is restricted, as such to get one require some amount of hoop jumping.

A "decent" 1911 kit like PGC or Nova runs $250-$280 USD.

[Slono]

Originally Posted by Old School Punk

Most of the kits that I have seen are arount $150.00 US kind of thing.

Based on some of what I am hearing here is that would be considered a "low end" kit, and would probably not be worth the trouble eh.

I haven't even seen any $300 - $400 kits! That sounds pretty outragous for a kit to me.

Thanks for all the advice Gents, You Rock!

Keep'em coming if you have a tale to tell.

Gordo

oooh, it's worth it. Very worth it.

[Crunchmeister]

IMO, unless you really know what you're doing, keep it plastic, or just get a metal slide. Unless you spring for the best high end metal kits, you're more than likely to experience a lot of fitment issues that require all kinds of sanding, grinding, etc. That stuff is best left in the hands of pros who know what they're doing, know what needs to be done in advance without even looking at it, and can do it well each and every time. Personally, the only person that comes to mine with that kind of experience is Illusion. Just keep in mind that kind of work isn't cheap. It's not a surprise that his pistols cost so much. But in the end, you basically have the best of the best in terms of appearance and function.

The other option is to simply get a custom gun already built with a metal kit like the UNC upgraded custom guns. They start with a TM gun and do the full metal upgrade for you. Everything works the way it should out of the box. Again, those are rather expensive to get and you need to get someone that can import one for you.

Best of luck with your MEU.

[ILLusion]

I think whether you want to do upgrades or not is dependent on a couple of things, but mainly, what your expectations are for the pistol, what you'd like to do to improve certain performance characteristics, and finally, what your budget is.

In this same Upgrades & Modifications forum, stickied to the top is a thread I've created that deals a lot with these different performance and aesthetic characteristics, as well as covers almost all general questions you may have with this particular series of Marui GBB. http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=94413
Post #3 lists out all the different performance characteristics that I could think of, but I haven't gotten around to filling out the descriptions.

I've noticed a discussion of metal upgrades, so I'll comment a bit on that: It's true, a good quality kit can cost anywhere from $240 to almost $700, depending on the make and model. Also, depending on the kit, you may be required to purchase additional components to support such an upgrade. If you're on a tight budget, either wait it out, or do what I wouldn't normally suggest... which is to just buy a WE model, which is already full metal to begin with.

If you're on a budget but want to upgrade a Marui MEU, I recommend the VFC metal kit. The markings aren't accurate to a late model MEU SOC, but for the price and for the build quality, they're really hard to beat. They were also the easiest kit to install out of all I've tried.
On the other side, if you want a premium quality kit with superb construction, fitment and finish, check out Nova kits. You'll pay through the nose for them, but they're king of the castle. Expect some fitment issues as you install with Nova kits, though.
I would stay away from Guarder kits... the fitment is okay, but a little bit of work is provided. What irks me about them, is that for the price of a VFC kit (or a little bit over, depending on your source), the fit and finish is not as good, the quality isn't as good, and what bugs me the most is that a destructive modification is required to be made to the blowback unit. This modification renders the blowback unit useless with any other brand of slide than Guarder. Poor engineering, imho. Right out of the package, Guarder rails require filing to some areas JUST to get the slide to mate with the frame. This shows poor manufacturing. To top it off, once fully assembled, there is a bit of play. However, if you're willing to go through the fitment process, Guarder kits can provide a very cost effective solution.

If durability is an issue, I'd say you're worrying over little. The TM plastic is very durable.. I've yet to see a Marui single stack plastic slide/frame break under normal use. If anything, the first bit of wear you'll experience is to the slide catch notch. However, if you learn/train to use the "slingshot" method to release your slide rather than to hit the slide catch button, you'll greatly increase the durability of that notch.

Beyond that, metal is mostly costmetic. It adds a nice weight, it gives that cold metal feel to the touch. You get really nice *clink*clank* sounds as the slide moves and rocks the chamber back and forth. These qualities are worth the extra cost to many users, myself included.


I also noticed a mention of weight and balance in this thread, so here's my comment on that: From my personal experience with Marui 1911's, is that they feel too light, and are very grip-weighted. A real 1911, is much heavier, and the weight is balanced over the trigger more than it is towards the grip (even with a fully loaded magazine.) For myself, I go the full metal route, and try to put as much steel in the muzzle as I can to bring the weight forward. In one of my particular builds, on top of a steel barrel bushing and steel recoil rod bushing, I've also opted to go with a bull barrel and full length steel guide rod to bring that much more weight forward. It's still grip heavy, but the balance is closer to the real thing.




In the end, try the pistol out first... see what you like about it. See what you don't like and then you can look in to options to fix or improve the things you don't like... or make the things you like about it even better.

[Old School Punk]

Hey ILLusion, and everyone else, thanks for taking the time to read and respond to my thread. Much appreciated.

You guys have given me a lot to think I about! I think that I will try out the gun for a while first, and if I decide to do some mods to it later, I suspect I will be talking to some of you guys some more.

Thanks Again

Gordo

P.S. If anyone out there has a TM - MEU 1911 Empty Box or an original Instruction Manual that they no longer need, please drop me a PM as I am looking to buy one of each.