Back wehn Bill Wilson (of Wilson Combat fame) was starting out, you used to see his custom 1911's in many mags and a large percentage fo them were built on Norinco's. That's pretty good endorsement right there.
Yes, they have been known to be an excellent base gun for a build. From what I have heard the only reason some smiths won't work on them is the steel is so hard it wears out the tooling. I picked up an unfired Norinco 1911A1 with the box a few weeks ago. Got to shoot it yesterday and the function was flawless and accurate. If I was to carry it (wich I may) I would change the sights, thumb safety and possibly a beavertail and get a trigger job.
I had one for a few years and I shot it a lot (when my custom colt was broken, which was frequently) It was reliable accurate and I bought it cheaply. I cannot complain.
I enjoy mine. It is a military grade gun, meaning the finish is not pretty. But it runs very well. There will probably never be any more imported, so if you get a good one, it will probably be a good long term investment.
If you can, strip it and check for excessive wear on the barrel lugs. Some of the older ones had a problem with this.
I've owned a couple and loved them! They are some of the guns I wished I'd kept! I've seen many a fine pistols built from Norinco 1911s. If you find more lmk!
Back about 1989 or so a customer walked into our shop and wanted some custom work done on a Norinco 1911. I knew very little about them at the time. Installed a Wilson beavertail and barrel bushing and changed out the thumb safety and mag release and basic reliability work. When grinding the initial cut on the frame for the beavertail it threw sparks like I have never seen come off of a 1911 frame. A file would barely cut the frame steel. I had to final fit it the tail with stones. The slide was so hard that a swiss file just glided over it with no effect. Really hard steel those Chinese make. The gun turned out to be very accurate and very reliable. He shot IPSC with it for one summer and then took up reloading. Some of his first handloads contained a squib which stuck one in the barrel and of course he followed that up with a live one. Brought it back and said he couldn't get the barrel out of the slide. I finally got it out with some brute force and he had bulged it real nice. But the barrel did not let go. We put a new barrel in it and as far as I know he's still shooting it. Norincos aren't much to look at but they build a solid 1911.