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The only Series ‘80 GC I've ever had occasion to take the Eliason sight apart on was the one I mentioned in my previous post that had a detent pin that kept working loose. I didn't compare it to a Series ‘70 sight at the time, so I don't know what to tell you the difference in the screw is? I wasn’t looking for one. The pre-Series ‘70 guns used a pair of spring-loaded ball bearings on opposite sides of the screw head for detent. The pin replaced this in the Series ’70, but I don’t recall anything being different in the Series ’80? Perhaps someone else will know?
I mentioned the main sight pin in my Series '70 GC kept working its way out while shooting. The solid pin is bent in the middle to hang on to the inside of the hole through the sight body. This doesn't always work perfectly. When I first had this problem I was shooting bull’s eye matches, but hadn't yet learned accuracy work. At the time, an experienced gunsmith advised me to go with the roll pin. I remember both changing that pin and adding a U-shaped stainless shim underneath the sight to tighten its side-to-side fit in the sight channel in the slide.
The trick with the roll pin is to have it friction fit either the slide or the sight body, but not both. Otherwise, it resists elevating. When the roll pin fits the sight body snuggly, it doesn't extend far enough out the sides to re-expand significantly. So if the holes in the slide frame are made slightly larger than the one in the sight body, you get good, free elevation pivoting. You can open up those holes in the frame by a thousandth of an inch with a reamer to get this fit, if they aren’t that much bigger already (this is catch as catch can with Colt).
In hidden areas (like the reamed pin holes) I usually use a toothpick to apply a little Van’s gun blue to help protect the steel. I once did an experiment with a half-dozen cold blues in which I blued the tips of some music wire rods, neutralized the acid with Formula 409 cleaner, rinsed them thoroughly, dried them with acetone, then left the un-lubricated metal sitting in my office on a plastic box. After two weeks, all but the sample treated with Van’s had surface rust; some of it quite substantial. Van’s claims this protective property and it seems to work. The newer Blue Wonder product claims the same thing, but I haven’t tested it yet.
Dave's got a good point about other sights being better designs. It may depend on whether it matters to you to preserve the original configuration closely or not? I've seen the Millet sight for as little as $35. My personal preference is not to have the white low-light markings that come standard on the back of it; not for target shooting, anyway. But you can cover them with sight black, and you will have a mechanically more sound sight.
Nick
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