Me vs 1911 & Tight Barrel Nut/Vicious Recoil Spring & Plug

[Phil3]

I am wits end!!! I have hardly used my Dan Wesson Pointman 7 1911 in 45ACP (35 rounds), but decided to take it apart to clean since it had been sitting a while and the directions say to clean it before shooting anyway (oops).

I managed to get it apart, but wrestling with the very tight barrel bushing, very strong recoil spring, and recoil spring plug, was an absolute nightmare. If I thought that was bad, trying to reassemble these parts is even worse. I have tried for an hour and get this done (and haven't). I have watched Your Tube videos of how people do this with little effort, but the recoil spring in those videos appears weaker than mine. The barrel bushings in the videos are often turned by hand. Wrench only and a potent spring on my gun.

I managed to get it the barrel bushing out and the gun apart with the help of the Thumb Buddy.

http://www.slip2000.com/slip2000_thumbbuddy.php

Complicating assembly (other than the tight barrel bushing and vicious spring) is that the recoil spring plug hangs up on something about 1/8" shy of seating fully. Trying to wiggle it around while containing the potent spring, holding the gun, and using a wrench, is well, impossible. I gave up on the Thumb Buddy as it was another thing to hold, instead using some leather gloves to protect my fingers or thumb against the recoil spring plug. The pain of that ended my efforts prematurely.

The entire arrangement is diabolical. I dread having to clean this thing again, but unless I get it back together, there won't be a next time. Ideas on how to best approach this?

Phil