My son said the other week that he wanted a custom 1911. I told him I'd build him one. Told him to make up a list of exactly what he wanted on it. I'm still waiting for his answer.
I too have been playing 1911 for a half-century now. Wow, have things changed in that time. When I started, a 1911 that would group into 2" @ 25 was pretty darn good; 4"-5" was more like the norm. Now it's remarkable to find one that WON'T group into 2.5" or better, right out of the box. And run with 100% reliability, too.
I spent a few hundred dollars building up my first 1911 into a state-of-the-art 1973 "Custom Combat Conversion." Learned a lot from that gun, mostly about stuff I DIDN'T need. My second 1911 was built up more along the lines of what Jeff Cooper said about all you really NEED in a 1911 is sights you can see, a trigger you can pull, and a grip that fits your hand. (100% reliability is assumed, of course.) Everything else is just candy and bling. Cooper's GSP appeared around that time--I think just after I built up 1911 #2--and I was pleased to discover that it was remarkably similar to my #2 gun, which has been my "house gun" for nearly 40 years now. The Springfield Armory Mil-Spec is also pretty much the same gun.
Along the way I also developed a fondness for the LW Commander. I have two of those--genuine Colt LW Commanders, that is--and a couple of clones I built up on Fed Ord Ranger frames.
An old favorite saying of mine: The Seven Basic Simple Machines Upon Which Western Civilization Has Been Built: The wheel, the lever, the wedge, the screw, the hammer, the Small-Block Chevy, and the Colt Government Model M1911.