Kimber had the original sight very tight, I made a aluminum punch to knock out the old sight and install the new one.. cut it to .210 to fit in between the dovetail cut.. That way the flat edge will run all the way through, i also heated the slide with hair dryer to 180 deg before removing the old sight. Fitting the new sight, started to drive in tightened up quick, removed and filed bottom of sight so it would go in about 1/2 of the way had to do this several times, also had to remove some material off body of sight to clear slide both front and back, once it was set for final drive i used two drops of red loc-tite and installed sight to desired position.

 

Old sight being heated for removal.

 

filing to clearance slide, you can see no clearance at rear front filed.

 

new sight ready for final install after fitting.

 

new sight driven home pic of aluminum driver..

 

sight picture.

 

side view.

Nice job Tony, nice job on the fitting. I see you used heat, I know I have done that with bearing races, the old freeze the races and heat what they were going into and I have have tight press in clearance fits drop right in, but you ever run into too tight a clearance fit in this type of application??

The sight should always be very tight installing a new one, you should have to file fit the sight..

 

I hit that old sight then smacked it and it did not move, time for heat i let that slide heat until it hit 180 deg i checked it with my heat gun.. actually i was too lazy to get mine and used the kids heat gun for his remote control car..LOL..

 

I had to smack it 3 times before it started to move and when it did i kept on going until it was out..That is good being that tight you know it will not come out on the range..

Nice pics.

 

 

Harry, I had to do some fitting when I installed new front sights on my STI, took a bit of filing and trial and error until I get them to fit just right within the dove tail.

I followed this video when I did my install

 

 

Dave dawson explains it well and gives some good tips during the video.

Got it Alec, I have fit sights before I was looking more into if Tony ever ran into problems fitting using heat over just file/stone to fit.

roger 10-4 buddy

 

i think the heat for removing is to loosen the lock-tight on the sight.

Got it Alec, I have fit sights before I was looking more into if Tony ever ran into problems fitting using heat over just file/stone to fit.

 

I used the heat to remove the old one, no heat on install, file fit..

Got It Tony, that's all I was wondering. Didn't seem right for a clearance fit. Will keep doing it as I have been.

 

(null)

Tony,

 

Did you use any loctite at all? If you did, blue or red?

 

I'm changing the sights on my glock later this week as well.

Tony,

 

Did you use any loctite at all? If you did, blue or red?

 

I'm changing the sights on my glock later this week as well.

 

Yes i did, i used two drops of red and spread it around with a buis card and removed the excess, you dont need much unless your site does not fit tight.. Remeber if you use red loc-tite you will need heat to remove it.. blue or purple will not work for this application..

Good write up.