I'll chime in on this one, because I find the idea intriguing.
The big obstacle is numbering of all the parts of the pistol. Manufacturers numbered them in the past for one reason only (and it's not to have "all matching" pistols!). They numbered them in order to be able to assemble the pistol with the parts that "belong" to the particular unit after the bluing. Which tells us that a certain level of intolerance was machined into the parts, and MOST small parts had to be individually hand fitted to the EXACT unit.
This means that there are no two completely alike out there (down to microns)! Some of the members here are accomplished gunsmiths, and they will attest to the need of hand fitting the replacement parts to the weapons they work on. On another hand......MOST Parabellum owners/collectors ARE NOT knowledgeable and/or equipped for gunsmithing.
So which weapon would a "starter company" use for the template to replicate the parts on CNC machine (which is VERY possible)? And how would the end user fit their replacement parts to the weapon needing the new parts? Taking it all to the gunsmith, and have it "hand fitted"? This alone would push the final cost well beyond the price of the "non matching shooter" available today pretty much anywhere (there are thousands of them in circulation). Spare parts are still available in abundance (and they also need to be "hand fitted"!).
To replicate the same weapon over and over on CNC is quite possible, but the quality of such produced unit would be no better than what Interarms attempted in the past (possibly worse), and would have VERY limited market (IMO). "Parts kits" that would be offered for repair of genuine pistols would all have to be fitted (some extensively) to each individual, vintage pistol.
So far, these pistols survived in such quantity thanks largely to unselfish, altruistic collectors, which see themselves as "guardians/caretakers" of the historical pieces that are merely preserving them for the next generation. These people somehow established the "matching numbers value", and "non matching value" to fit certain pistols. As we all know, there are very few pistols out there that have matching magazines, holsters, etc. Non matching magazines are OK, but god forbid one internal part is "mismatched"!! I think it's hypocritical.
There are other, selfish bastards (like myself) that have "matching" pistols, and shoot them (not extensively mind you!), with complete awareness that some original (numbered) part might break, and make them "worth less" in the future. Worth less to who, I ask? Descendants that will sell it at the first opportunity, and take a vacation to Bahamas? Personally,..... I couldn't care less!
There are more selfish bastards like me out there, and the number of "matching" pistols will inevitably get smaller and smaller, in the next century, until there will be only "shooter grade" weapons circulating in the world. Does it matter? In my experience, there might be a handful of young people out there that are even remotely interested in WW2, or history in general.
Even non matching ones are shooting good, they are marvels of the technology from the late 19th century, and good to look at. Newly produced "shooter" will never have the attractiveness of the historical piece ("been there, done that"), "matching", or "not", for someone interested in history.
In summary......I don't see this idea as a viable, profit generating idea, but if one has tons of surplus money/time, it would be fun (in a way of saying "look guys, I did this!!"). All I see is deadlines, expenses, contracts, bills, customer service, employees/payroll, workman's comp, insurance, ATF, EPA, IRS.........everything I ran away from, and the time is running short!
Sorry about the rant. I don't post much, but boy.......when I do I write novels!
