![Discussion Forums](/images/2016/spacer.gif)
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Which would be the more authentic option?
View Quote
Before you do anything, decide which rifle you want to 'clone'. There's a couple different directions you could go in.
Do you want to replicate an A1 or maybe an XM16E1? The difference (with regard to the lower) being (mainly) the 'fence'. the XM16E1 has a partial fence while the A1 has the full fence.
The main thing to think about with regard to doing an 80%, is going to be finish. If you want to do an 80%, it's a great project. I've done 5 or 6. But when you start adding up the costs of each process, it's going to be fairly expensive.
An 80 from NDS (the best for a retro build) is going to be around $135. Well worth the price. But then you have to send it out for engraving (before doing any work on it, unless the engraver has an FLL). I don't remember how much engraving generally runs, but just throw out a figure of $85 or $100. Once it's engraved, now it has to be anodized. The best place for that, is Victor at US Anodizing. I believe he now requires any receiver (80% or 100%) to be shipped to him from an FFL and sent back to an FFL. Someone can correct me if I'm incorrect, but that was the last thing I'd read on it.
So, depending on how much an FFL will charge you, that adds an additional fee/fees. My main FFL, charges $25 to ship and $25 to receive.
Then, on top of all that, add the anodizing fee. Will you have the upper anodized at the same time so that they match (as closely as possible)?
I emailed Victor back in September to inquire about stripping and re-anodizing an upper. For that, it was $200. For a lower, it was $125 in the white. So that's $325, if you do both. Of course, you could always go with some Molly Resin, but there's nothing like anodizing.
As you can see, the costs can mount. The lower could easily end up costing you $350 to $400, by the time it's ready to complete the rifle.
Having an A2 lower receiver re-profiled probably wouldn't save you much, if it saved you anything at all. But that's just a guess, thinking about the labor involved. But the person who would do the work would be the best source for that information.
Don't want to take all that time and spend all that money? You could get a completed lower from NDS. I think they're $155. Then add the FFL fee, and that's it. Unless you wanted to get the upper re-anodized to match the lower, then it's an additional $200 (unless Victor has gone up on his prices since September).
But like I said at first, decide which rifle you want to replicate. The XM16E1 or the M16A1? My personal preference is the A1, but I'm biased because that's what I carried when I was in the Army.
Oh, to your question about authenticity, you could talk to braceman about a re-weld. That's where he re-welds an authentic M16 receiver front end (from a receiver that had been cut in half), and the back end of an 80%, and he welds them together.
I believe the only problem that you'd run into there is that I don't believe that the end result could be anodized and have the color be uniform. So painting it would be the only thing you could do (but someone can correct me if I'm wrong).
If I were to chose between an A2 re-profiled receiver and an NDS receiver, I'd go with the NDS receiver (not one from Brownells, one directly from NDS).