Bob,
You certainly know how to present a conversation piece
My first thoughts when I quickly browsed the photos was something in the line of 'that refinisher should get this stuck where the sun don't shine'. The side plate is a modern reproduction, btw.
The frame modification says enough, and I really appreciate your thoughts on having it restored to a better level (although improving on the current state shouldn't be too difficult
).
Let's hope we'll see this pistol returned to a shape that is much closer to it's original one.