Thanks to JT for the assembly work. Came out great IMO. Used most all original late/transitional parts with the exception of the barrel, bolt, and receiver which are new. NDS lower, Colt MPC bolt, and GM barrel so I can shoot the crap out of it and not worry about wearing out or damaging original parts. The HGs are L R marked so I might replace those with earlier ones, and the gastube is modern so I might buy and early bend from JT down the road but for now I am happy.

Less talk more pics:

Looks great!  Btw,  I have a hog kill on that bolt. Well,  the carrier anyway.  

Your rifle looks great. JT does excellent work. Enjoy.

Very nice looking rifle!
An inspiration to finish mine.

Looks good.

It's a shooter too. Took ~10 rounds to zero, and this is a pic of the 5 shot group I shot to confirm zero. Shot as fast as I could reacquire the sights at 25m. Normally don't shoot groups but if I get the chance I'll see what I can do at 100m.

That's a really nice XM and good shootin' OP!  Now go scrub that lower until you get down to what I call "Somebob" bronze to match that upper!  

I was actually going to ask what's the best way to get that golden tinge on a NoDak lower. The quick fix is hit it with a bronze/brass cleaning brush, but that wears off eventually. Anything else work?

Very fine rifle there. Your shooter is a looker too. Nothing like picking up a freshly built retro and making it run.

Very Nice job, looks great, mottled hand guards match the butt stock. I like to shoot mine too. that's how I build all of mine " shooters"

You'd have to re-anodize it.  I've seen pictures of some NDS lowers that wear through to gold, I think it just comes down to luck.  Can you show a close-up picture showing where the upper and lower meet?  I have a recent NDS lower and it has more texture in it than the upper I am using it with.  I took scotchbrite to an anodized part and it polishes it smooth as it wears down the anodizing so I don't know if it is possible to smooth out a NDS lower while getting a slightly worn look (that might match your upper).  I don't know if NDS has any "test" pieces of anodized aluminum we could experiment on.

Your complete rifle looks really nice and it is good to see that upper being used. :)

Does this pic work?



Otherwise I can try to get some decent iPotato pics this weekend in good lighting. I think I mentioned it in the other thread, but I threw some Alumablack on the rear where someone attempted to sand off the rack number until I can get some model paint to try and match the anodizing.

Looks great SGL.

Damn ... Green Mountain makes some good barrels.  Rumor has it that GM made A2 barrels for Colt.

That looks really nice, I like all the pictures you are posting.  That charging handle is a really good match!

I can't really see the texture in your pictures, it is difficult to photograph.  Here are some pictures of mine with outside light reflecting off the flat faces.  The left one is a 603 upper receiver very similar to yours, it is on a NDS partial fence lower that they gave the BFPU treatment.  The color match for the upper and lower is very good and the texture match is very good too.  The lower on the left is noticeably smoother than the newer one I have on the right and I'm not sure if it was smoother from manufacture or if it gets smooth when they give it the BFPU treatment.  The rifle on the right is a very nice 604 upper receiver with a little more texture in it than the 603.  It has an obvious dark green tint to it and is not a good color match to the lower.  The right lower also has a rougher texture than the upper so the difference in color and texture make it a clear "bad" match.  (I know many original rifles did not have color match between parts)


(bigger pic)

ETA: As a comparison, same rifle on the left, GM upper on a NDS lower that I bought in the white and had US Anodizing do a custom black over gold finish on it.  I rubbed most of the black off to show the gold underneath, the upper and lower are much smoother than most parts.


This is a different upper, it is a pretty nice square forge 604.  It looks like someone tried to polish out a scuff and ended up smoothing out the finish in one spot.  In the top picture you can see the smooth streak, in the bottom picture you can see where they rubbed through the dye and it is going through to gold just like your upper receiver.  I think your upper receiver looked like this one when it was new and over its life was evenly worn smooth and is starting to show gold in a few spots.




I've been really busy at work, but I'll try to get a picture of the upper receiver that was rubbed with scotchbrite and got very smooth in the process.  It might be possible to rub the whole receiver down to show what ever color is underneath, I think it comes down to luck if there is gold underneath.  If your lower has a little texture in it now, it may get smoothed out a little bit in the process.  We might ask NDS if we could obtain some "test" chunks of aluminum to experiment on.

I am going to the range this morning and will try to get some better pics in natural light like those. Stay tuned.

Wasn't able to shoot this morning due to two LEOs taking up the whole range for some drills. Closure wasn't even posted on the range's site

Nothing like packing up and driving to the range only to have it be closed. I'll try again later this week.

Hectic week, made it to the range yesterday. Here's some new pics of the NDS lower vs. the XM upper. The NDS lower seems to have a bit of texture to it, while the upper is pretty darn smooth.

Thanks for posting.  Here is the 604 upper receiver I took scotchbrite to.  It was worn on the inside, had chips in it, and the back end is all dinged up from lots of handling or bouncing around in a barrel full of old uppers?  Anyway, I decided to give the scotchbrite treatment a try and it didn't turn out the way I expected so I stopped after rubbing on the carry handle.  It is difficult to photograph but as you wear through the anodizing the color gets lighter, here you can see the green tint in the dye.  I tried to show the smoothness in the 2nd shot but it isn't that easy to see.




It doesn't bother me as much now as it did the day I rubbed on it, at the time I felt like I ruined a good part.  If I could go back in time I wouldn't rub on it.  Maybe I'll change the sight wheel out and rub on the whole thing some more some day, you can always rub more later.  This is the part I was comparing it to, it is worn through but is not smooth.  (top one in pic)  I don't know if it has just slowly oxidized over time, I don't know if the upper I rubbed on will dull with time.



I don't know how smooth the NDS lowers will get if we try to rub on them, if they are going to give the BFPU treatment to one of their parts it would be nice to see before and after pictures showing the texture so we have an idea of how smooth we can make our lowers.

ETA: In the last picture, the bottom lower is the one that someone rubbed through to gold, see the spot?

I'm not sure the NDS lower will come out the same but I'm willing to try

Just need to stop by the hardware store for the pads to do it.