Real Steel Grip and Mainspring Seat Modification Guide for TM P226 & KJW P229

[Romulus]

This guide is intended to show how to fit Real Steel SIG Sauer grips on to TM P226's and KJW P229's using a modified Real Steel Mainspring Seat. The big advantage to using a RS mainspring seat it that it saves hours of dremeling to get RS grips to fit around the stock mainspring seat.

 

This guide has several parts:

 

I. Disassembling Grips

II. Modifying RS Mainspring Seat

III. Modifying Hogue Grips

IV. Modification and Installation of RS P229 Grips

V. Conclusion/Notes

 

Just as a note, this guide was created to help people out. However, I take not responsibility for any damage or confusion that may occur during this process. Use your common sense and always mod at your own risk.

 

 

I. Disassembling Grips -

 

First you need one of these. If you don't know what this is please don't attempt this modification...

 

 

Taking the grips off of a TM P226 is easy. Just remove the four grip screws.

 

The first two screws...

 

 

Remove the grip panel. The blue arrow is pointing to the de-cocking mechanism which is removed simply by picking it up...

 

 

It should look like this....

 

 

The other side. Watch out for the trigger bar spring...

 

 

Now remove the hammer spring mechanism. The big silver bit is the stock mainspring seat. The gun is now disassembled.

 

Note: This is the point where you can change the hammer spring...

 

 

II. Modifying RS Mainspring Seat

 

This is the mainspring seat. I ordered mine from Brownell's...

 

 

Here are three different mainspring seats. The one on the left is a modded RS mainspring seat, the one in the center is the stock mainspring seat, and the one on the right is the un-modded RS Mainspring.

 

 

Here's what you have to do to mod the RS seat. The blue arrow is pointing to the bit that needs to be removed. You also might have to enlarge the hole at the top of your seat. It's easy to test the fit of the modded piece.

 

 

Now re-install the piece back on the gun. It should look like this. Test the hammer to make sure that everything works fine. Tweak as necessary.

 

 

 

[Romulus]

III. Modifying Hogue Grips

 

This step is really pretty simple because of the RS mainspring seat.

 

First off, Hogue Wraparound Grips purchased from E-bay...

 

 

The only material that needs to be removed is around the screw holes. This is so that the grips seat properly over the bushings. I used a countersink and a drill press to remove the material. However, a dremel or similar tool would probably work just as well. It is easy to tell when you have removed enough material because you can test the grips to see if they sit flush with the frame.

 

 

Now screw the Hogue's back on. If they fit flush then you removed enough material from around the screw holes.

 

Several notes: First, the bushings are friction fit into the frame. Do NOT over tighten the grip screws or you will pull out the bushings. I did this myself which is why I now only have three grip screws. Second, Hogues will have a slight crack down the back of the grips but there should not be room for anything to get inside. If there is you have done something wrong.

 

I have not fit factory grips at this time but the same principles apply, you need to remove material for the bushings and then see if there is anything else keeping the grips from fitting flush.

 

 

IV. Modification and Installation of RS P229 Grips

 

Since the KJW P229 mechanisms are almost an exact clone of the TM P226 these mods can work on it as well.

 

First step is to strip the gun down like the TM P226.

 

 

Here's a picture of the KJW Grips verses the RS Grips. The RS grips not only have proper trades, they also are made out of a higher quality plastic that is a nice matte black/dark grey color.

 

 

Modifying the RS grips is a bit more complex in this case. I'll go through each color one at a time:

 

Red - The red arrows are pointing out the normal material that has to be removed for the bushings. Use the same process as above.

 

Blue - The blue arrows are pointing out the material that must be removed from the bottom of the grips to allow the mag to smoothly come in and out of the gun. If you put the gun back together and the mag doesn't go in or is very tight you need to remove more material. I used a file to do this.

 

Green - This is the most complex part. Originally there is a bit of a ledge under the green line, this ledge must be ground down. Further, you can see the circular dremel marks where I removed more material. When you compare the pictures to the grips in front of you it should be obvious what needs to be removed. I used a dremel bit in a drill press but a normal dremel would work fine too if you're careful.

 

As I said above, this is a fitment process so keep trying the grip panels on the frame till they fit.

 

 

The next step is to mod the mainspring seat like above (note: All these SIGs use the same mainspring seat. They are not model specific).

 

Then is simply a matter of reinstalling the parts and viola...you have a complete gun that should look like this... (maybe not polished)

 

 

V. Conclusion/Notes

 

This process took me about half an hour the first time I tried it. It really is quite simple but it would be a pain to fit the P229 grips without a dremeling mechanism of some sort.

 

I have not handled a KJW P226 but I can only assume that this same process could be applied to it.

 

Also, I am not the inventor of this mod. I just have lots of experience and wanted to put it in a readable format.

 

Thanks to hkssr20det for asking me to take pictures for him and thus inspiring me to do the whole guide.

 

One last bit of advice. Use common sense on projects like these. If you think that you might be doing something wrong ask for help. If you think that you are going to break something or hurt yourself, don't do it. This is a fun and easy mod.

 

 

Notes:

 

1. I ordered my mainspring seat from Brownells. These SIG's all seem to use the same seat.

2. Be careful not to over tighten and of the screws. On the P226 it can lead to lost screws and on the P229 it can lead to the heads shearing off the screws. (See how I am using TM screws on the KJW P229?)

3. Both of the guns used in these mods are not stock. Everything relevant is the same but if something is slightly different you shouldn't worry.

4. Both of these guns are projects that are not complete. I am aware that there is more polish work etc. that needs to be done.

 

Just as a note, this guide was created to help people out. However, I take not responsibility for any damage or confusion that may occur during this process. Use you common sense and always mod at your own risk.

[Sale]

Man, the P226 looks sweet. You have the correct difference in the tone of the slide (blued steel on the real one) and frame (anodized aluminum, much more black compared to the slide on the real one).

 

Helpful and thorough quide, too.

 

-Sale

[Romulus]

Thanks for the comments.

 

That P226 was my first good TM GBB so it has a bit of a special place in my collection. It does need some work though. I think that I may X-five it if PGC ever releases the kit.

[felix4536]

always making very useful threads Romulus.

[Romulus]

Thanks. I try.

 

I guess that this is a bit obscure but it's one of those things that I see every month or so and I figured that i might as well do it right.

[The Saint]

Thanks for the guide Romulus. Quick question, how precisely does the Hogue grips mate with the tail end of the frame, above the thumb web? On my P229, the stock plastic grip mates poorly and can actually cut the top of the base of my thumb. I'm kind of hoping that my incoming Hogue grips will fix that.

[Romulus]

I have found that my TM P226 Hogues do have a gap but that it is hard to feel it.

 

Since the grips are made of rubber there is certainly no way that you could cut yourself on it.

 

I haven't tried Hogues on a P229 yet though so they may be a bit harder to fit (like the RS grips were). Let me know if I can help provide tech support.

[Armourpiercing]

Great thread dude!

AP.

[MrBlanks]

can you take a pic of the gap that you speak of?

 

and what tool did you use to cut into the mainspring seat and is it easy?

[Romulus]

Thanks Armourpiercing.

 

MrBlanks - I can try to get a picture in the next few days but I actually have to mod up the stock MSS that I used is this tutorial. As for my modding process I actaully used a coarse dremel bit in my drill press and then just worked the part on that. However, it is certainly not necessary to have that much stuff. I'm sure that dremel would work just as well (I would have used one but the chuck on mine is broken).

 

I'll see if I can't get photos in a couple days though.

 

[Smurf]

I have also got the mainspring seat and RS grips and Hogue grips for my TM P226'.

On my Hogue grip there is a gap where the two sides join above the mainspring housing, I believe this is fairly common with the Hogue wrap arounds.

The set of RS grips are definately more comfortable and more grippy than the stock TM grips.

[Romulus]

My guess is that there is a small gap even when the grips are installed on an RS P226.

 

I think that I may have to pick up some RS stock grips for my P226 even though I have custom TM's being done up right now.

[The Saint]

Romulus, how long did it take your spring housing to get to you from Brownell?

[hkssr20det]

I received mine within a week to CA. They ship via First Class mail usually.

[Romulus]

I live in Alaska and as I recall the shipping (via USPS) was quite fast. I think that I got my parts in four days.

[The Saint]

Hm, I'm at ~4 weeks and counting. Maybe it's still working through the Christmas postal backlog. I hope.

 

My Hogue grips are also taking quite a while. It wasn't even shipped until we asked them whether they shipped it yet, 2 weeks after ordering.

[Romulus]

Yikes. Talk about slow shipping. I guess that it doesn't help being in Canada though.

 

Good Luck.

[Andrew March]

Awesome thread Romulus

[Romulus]

Thanks.

 

Also while this is up I wanted to mention that I have had several people contact me with questions during their fitting. I just wanted to let people know that I am more than happy to give people additional help if they get stuck on some step. Just shoot me a PM.

[Angus_ITA]

Great modification! Congrats!

[Kerbdog]

I bought a rs mainspring seat to try this mod, but found it made the trigger pull extremely light and cheap feeling.. is there something i am missing?

[Romulus]

That's strange, I have done two of these and never noticed any difference with the trigger pull.

 

If your trigger pull changed I would be suspicious that something didn't go back together right.

[Punkypink]

Ohh hey I never knew this guide was here too. I saw it at:

 

http://airsoft-barracks.com/page.php?135

 

It was great for helping me fit my Hogues onto my P229. I choose to retain the stock mainspring seat because I liked the added weight it gave to the P229.

 

The finished result:

 

[Romulus]

Nice work. I like the look of those slimmer Hogues.

 

I am working on putting as much GBB info as I can on ASB but I figured that even more people might see it if I had it here as well.