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Posted: 6/8/2013 8:41:41 PM EDT
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Finished putting this together a couple weeks ago; finally got a chance to photograph her. Several nice 604 builds have been shown in this forum recently, here is one more. This was put together with mostly current made components; the only period original parts are the furniture, port door cover, slip ring, and the Colt 20 round magazine.
John Thomas did a great job smoothing the front sight base for me. He also drilled and taper pinned it to the Dez Arms barrel and reparked the assembly. While purist may shun this for not using original parts, the goal was to build a rifle that would look as closely as possible to a USAF Model 604, as one may have appeared when new, yet be capable of accurately firing current heavier grain ammunition. It has a Dez Arms 20" pencil profile match grade barrel with 1/7 twist and Young Manufacturing slick side chromed bolt & carrier. The upper & lower are both NoDak Spud; The .625 non "f"-marked front sight base is made by Primary Industries, the front and rear sight parts are from Fulton Armory lightened from black to grey with navel jelly; The three prong flash hider is also by Fulton, and was reparked by John Thomas to match the barrel assembly. The lower parts are Stag Arms with navel jelly treatment; the selector is a current production, de-milled M-16 switch, re-parkerized and lightened (a little too much) with navel jelly. The trigger guard came from the EE and was said to have been anodized by US Anodizing. Even the Garand sling is recent production USGI; I don't know what they still use use them for. The furniture came from Numrich's and looked like hell when I got it; a palm sander and a bench grinder with a buffing wheel fixed those up. The receiver set also went under the buffing wheel to give it a light patina; I didn't care for the fresh anodized look, even though I was going for a like new appearance. The slip ring I got from a member, and the port door from the EE. The 20 round Colt magazine is one of several I picked up from the 24th Infantry Division in the '80's. I had a lot of fun researching and aquiring parts for this project; it is technically my second retro build, and likely one of many more. I now have several boxes of old parts, each one a different idea brewing. The first retro build was a XM177 replica, but I put it together before discovering ARFCOM or RetroBlackRifle.com and will likely re-do that one correctly. Love it or hate it, here she is: 
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Outstanding. I applaud you. I have been saying for some time that the future of retro is repro parts, and you have embraced that. Originality is wonderful - we all love to see early parts, but truthfully, unless you luck out, finishing a build these days without using repro parts is problematic.
It's my opinion that no one should feel bad about this. It's the 'heart' of the project that matters, and the OP has posted the single nicest 604 I have seen since the invent of this forum, AND it will shoot 62 grain ammo.  What I do now, and would prefer that people do, is use rare parts to build rare guns, otherwise, use repros. Also, consider that NDS lowers ARE REPROS. So, you can spend a lot of money on an original transitional bolt catch like I did, then put it on a repro lower
. I justify it because the upper and every other part other than the lower and FCG is orignal 1966. Close as I can get. OTOH, I have a build in process that is total BS and uses mostly repro parts but will look more like the 'real deal' when I'm done than my real upper. OP, in my estimation, your build is tits. Great job! |
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Six Oh Forgery? I'm stealing that!
I agree Morg, except the future of retro is RETRO. The scouring of the planet for vintage will be the death of it. Retro is, by definition repop, in every place EXCEPT AR's for some reason. Cars, clothing and furniture, retro is new made to look like the old stuff and vintage is the real-deal actual item. IIRC the only non-vintage items that aren't being made at all are aluminum carbine stocks, Type A-E stocks and triangle handguards. Repop pistol grips and 20" pencil barrels are thin on the ground. |
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Six Oh Forgery? I'm stealing that! I agree Morg, except the future of retro is RETRO. The scouring of the planet for vintage will be the death of it. Retro is, by definition repop, in every place EXCEPT AR's for some reason. Cars, clothing and furniture, retro is new made to look like the old stuff and vintage is the real-deal actual item. IIRC the only non-vintage items that aren't being made at all are aluminum carbine stocks, Type A-E stocks and triangle handguards. Repop pistol grips and 20" pencil barrels are thin on the ground. I agree 100% but have made that argument before when someone uses 'in the spirit of retro' which is redundant IMO. Retro IS a repro, whereas we are really building Vintage rifles when we use all old parts. My XM16E1 is all 1966 except for the lower receiver and 2 LPK parts to make it legal. I hope NDS gets caught up and back to making upper receivers as well as lowers. The main issue is repro furniture. |
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I love everything about it and who cares about this twist rate of the barrel if your planning on shooting it. One thing that DOES stick out like a sore thumb is that BLACK mag release button. Damn, the rest of the gun is so nice, I didn't even notice. That's an easy fix though. I bet boywonder777 or John Thomas could hook the OP up.
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dedzeppo,
Just beautiful !!! You say that you sanded the stock and hand guards with a palm sander and then buffed ?? How about a quick list of the steps you used ? I have a 604 project that I am working on and the stock and hand guards have some scratches that I would like to remove. Thanks, BC |
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dedzeppo, Just beautiful !!! You say that you sanded the stock and hand guards with a palm sander and then buffed ?? How about a quick list of the steps you used ? I have a 604 project that I am working on and the stock and hand guards have some scratches that I would like to remove. Thanks, BC Took a Dewalt palm sander to the stock and handguards; with the stock, after removing the sling swivel, I started with a 150 grit to remove the scratches and dull surface, then a 220 grit to smooth the sander swirls. A Type D stock can take quite a bit of sanding, it appears, so don't worry about taking too much material off. Then, by hand, a 600 grit wet sandpaper wrapped around a foam sanding pad took it to a dull shine. This really brought out the mottling; then with a buffer wheel on the bench grinder, using various buffing compounds, the dull shine brightened up quite a bit. finished it on a clean buffer wheel with Turtle Wax polishing compound and water to the shine you see in the pics. Unfortunately, in the polishing process some of the mottling got lost in the shine, but I like the glossy finish. The handguards are a little tricky; The sanding needs to be done slower, with a finer grit, I had to make my own pads for the palm sander in 400 and 600 grit after ruining the first set. Actually, they may not be ruined, they could probably be painted, but I got over zealous with the sander when I saw the swirl effect coming out a little; I took too much material off of the surface and ended up quite a lot of fiber showing. The second set is on the rifle. The grip was pretty clean to start with and only got the buffer wheel; I didn't want the checkering damaged. |
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You're rifle is beautiful , well done.
I have no problem using reproduction parts, most originals Are too hard to find and too expensive when you do.and Some models just couldn't get built without them. Besides, most reproduction parts come from the members Of this forum, they do amazing work , and I try to support their Projects whenever possible |
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