Picked it up 27feb from my local friendly dealer. Overall is looks pretty good. The rifle does NOT appear to have been chipped from steel by chisel wielding Romanians.

The good:
Barrel is cherry, I believe it's unfired.
All number match.
Wood is in new condition.
Finish is decent. It looks like bluing and it's not half bad.

The bad:
Rusty oil in the bolt, receiver, and under the handguards.
Finish on the bipod is not that good. May have problems with the paint bubbling/ rust under the paint.

The ugly:
Front sight base canted to the left, sight slide is maxed out to the right. Not sure if I'm going to be able to zero this one.
Muzzle nut welded on by 'more is better' welder. I've seen better welds done by Chinese welders that only got a bowl of rice and 1/2 an egg each day.
The supplied 40 round mag is snug, the supplied 30 mag and my new Hungarian mags are loose. The mag well was unevenly opened up, apparently to match that 1 Romak mag.
The Tapco piston is welded to the bolt carrier. Better job of welding, but we know that this doesn't make for reliable  AKs.

Over assessment:

It's not bad for $520 shipped. It's going to go back for the front sight base cant and the sloppy mag well. I was hoping to avoid the joys of CAIs renowned customer service, but we'll see.

Update with range report.

 2 FTFire with Yugo M67 ball from 70 rounds fired. This same ammo has been 100% in my SKS. Accuracy was acceptable at about 4MOA with irons off the bipod. No failures when I deliberately pushed the mag to the limit of its wobble. The rifle was zeroed in windage and required 1 1/2 turn of elevation adjustment. If the FSB was straight the front sight slide would be damn well near centered.

Edit with update:
Contacted the distributor. They are mailing me a shipping label for th return. We'll see how long that takes and what gets fixed.

You can train monkeys to weld:


to Dremel:


and to put on FSBs:


Unfortunately, you can't train them to perform these jobs well. BSW

Update 2apr08: Spoke with the dealer over the phone yesterday. He agreed that the rifle was crap and asked if I wanted a full refund or wanted to try another, hand picked AES-10B. I decided to spin the wheel of fate again and am getting another AES-10B.

The dealer did get me a shipping label for the return (UNLIKE ARSENAL!!!) and is throwing in another 40 round AK mag. I'll update agian when I get the new rifle.

UPDATE 15apr: I got the new AES-10B out to the range yesterday. The rifle performed 100%, windage was spot on(I didn't need to touch it) and elevation was 1 1/2 turns out. The new rifle is also cosmetically much nicer than the original. I suspect a new vodka ration had just come in the factory when the 1st rifle was being built.

I am happy now with my new AES-10B. BSW

BSW

There's a couple threads regarding removing the FSB pins, realigning the FSB and redrilling for oversized pins to zero the FSB.

Quoted: There's a couple threads regarding removing the FSB pins, realigning the FSB and redrilling for oversized pins to zero the FSB.

If it was only the FSB that was a problem, I'd do it... The thing that irritates me is the mag well hack job. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to fix it myself and it's worth me sending it back to CAI for that alone. BSW

Quoted: The bad: Rusty oil in the bolt, receiver, and under the handguards. I'll try to post pics later tonight. BSW

Are you sure that its rusty oil, not just some cosmoline?

Quoted: Quoted: There's a couple threads regarding removing the FSB pins, realigning the FSB and redrilling for oversized pins to zero the FSB. If it was only the FSB that was a problem, I'd do it... The thing that irritates me is the mag well hack job. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to fix it myself and it's worth me sending it back to CAI for that alone. BSW

Not sure how that can be "fixed" properly, other than a new receiver, which means a completely new rifle.  I saw one of these rifles at a gun show this past weekend; it had the same two problems as yours, so I kept the cash in my wallet.  For me, the too-large (thanx 2 Century) magwell was the deal breaker.  Too bad, they are a sweet looking RPK.

Quoted: Quoted: The bad: Rusty oil in the bolt, receiver, and under the handguards. I'll try to post pics later tonight. BSW Are you sure that its rusty oil, not just some cosmoline?

Rusty oil: It was thin and runny, maybe cosmoline and solvent?  Given where it was, I suspect that CAI dunked the parts in solvent w/o taken them apart to get the cosmoline off. BSW

watching this thread... closely.    Will report when I find something out.

At least Century is consistent.  They fuck up everything they touch.  

Quoted: Rusty oil: It was thin and runny, maybe cosmoline and solvent?  Given where it was, I suspect that CAI dunked the parts in solvent w/o taken them apart to get the cosmoline off. BSW

It is rusty oil leaching out from unprotected seams. Romanians do not use como. They use a light gear  oil as a shipping preservative.

I use a brake cleaner to flush the initial crude out and then use KROIL over a couple of day with multiple applications to help leach the remain heavy rust staining out. After than, lube and wipe down with my favorite CLP.

Hootbro

Update in 1st post.

BSW

I got an AES-10B and it had none of the problems yours had. Unfortunately like all Romy/Century builds these are just plain inconsistent. Mine has all mismatched parts and a milled style top cover, I've seen others with matching parts and ribbed topcovers. Some have fine magwells and some are rough. Some have decent wood and some have hideous wood. Some have canted sights, some, like mine, are perfectly straight and the gun shoots perfect. I ordered mine and I pretty much got lucky. I'd suggest to anyone else they handpick theirs in person if possible.

Guess I was lucky.. I got one a while back, it shoots great.. everything was in good shape.. no cant not much mag wobble.  Looks like it was sighted in decent as well.

I did repaint the bi pod with some krylon flat black... its held up great since then.

Also had the welded Muzzle nut. Took off a lot of the ugly weld with a dremel.. but have not got up the nerve to remove it 100%. Eventually I would like to put a decent break/flash-hider on it.  At least the weld is now flush with the barrel and isn't that ugly.  Little cold blue and it was good to go.

I did have a little rust on the bolt and carrier.. very light and a quick spray with some CLP and a toothbrush took it all off.

Its actually a fun gun to shoot.

I bought one yesterday.  I had  5 to pick from and only found one that met all my search criteria.  1.  No Canted front site 2.  Tight Clean Mag well 3.No Broken Windage knob on rear site. 4.Tight Carry handle (most were floppy).  It appears all my #'s matched up.  

I sighted it in with no problem.  Bore was perfect.  Gun functioned flawlesly with HP's (which had given my WASR) some digestive trouble.

Overall an awesome addition.  Plus it was only $375 out the  door.  Can't beat that.  I haven't tried the 2 mags that came with it. I'd buy one TODAY if I could hand pick it or get someone i trusted to.  What else can you get for under $400.  It's definately much better quality than the WASR's.

My only cripe is that even with just a 30rd mag in it, it doesn't sit on it's stock.  The mag throws it off to one side.  The pics online are a little decieving.  I'm going to get  a little door stopper or something that doesn't look rigged and screw it into the base of the rear stock to lift it up just enought to keep it from pivoting on the mag.

bump with update in 1st post

BSW