You got yourself an excellent piece of .45 history right there. I was fortunate to come across one years back for the right deal, although maybe not as good as yours. It was blued and was showing lots of neglect, so I had it zipped down to Robbie Barkman for the Robar NP3 coating. When I was doing a fair bit of surveillance work, it rode as backup (although would've been first to get to) in an Andrews crossdraw set up. Being seated most of the time, this was comforting as I could get a firing grip on it without moving around too much and looking normal. It was for when the street snoopers got a little close for comfort. It was a reliable and comforting piece of steel.

One way around the magazine price issue, is to make your back up magazines the slim base pad Wilson officers model mags. When I put those in, they only stick below the grip about 1/4-1/2" or so and are 100% reliable in that compact blaster.

Be sure to post pics when you get it "put back together" with your parts.