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I've built three 1911s, the first one from a box of parts, the second one a tear-down and rebuild of a complete gun, and the last based on a complete gun less frame, rebuilt on a new frame. If you are going to spend $1000-$1500 on a 1911 anyway, you can build a pretty nice gun; that is, you are going to spend that much on parts, tools, services. If you don't want to do much fitting, your gun is going to be very similar to a $600 Springfield. If you buy oversized parts and properly hand-fit them (my first project required some amount of filing/stoning/polishing on every part save the plunger tube and front sight), then you can end up with a gun that's very nearly the level of quality of a gun purchased over the counter for the same price. At the same time, you run the risk of ruining every one of those parts as you're fitting it, since the first time around, it's all new. Get the Kuhnhausen shop manuals, and I also recommend Hallock's .45 Auto Handbook. Read those cover-to-cover, at least once, before you start making metal shavings.
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