I honestly hope I'm not breaking any rules, and I hope these users is still around.

Today, I was installing my barrel (this is my first build) and I stupidly decided to vice my upper without a vice block (I was trying to save some money... Something I STRONGLY recommend AGAINST).

Well, I got the barrel in, but I also managed to bend my upper, to the point where my BGC wouldn't slide in freely. This was rather upsetting, as you might expect.

So, rather than trashing it, I decided it couldn't hurt to try fixing it. After about 15 unsuccessful minutes, I decided I should probably look to see how many people have successfully done this. My first few searches turned up a lot of blanks, and several people who gave up and trashed their uppers and ordered new ones. Then I came upon a post made by "Prebandanna", where he introduced "A_Free_Man". Apparently "Prebandanna" had done EXACTLY the same thing I just did. "A_Free_Man" had "Prebandanna" ship him his bent upper, and "A_Free_Man" fixed it. In the post, "A_Free_Man" explained how he did it, and it WORKED! My Bolt Group Carrier now slides as freely as it is supposed to.

So I wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! to "A_Free_Man" for the instructions (found here: http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=3&f=4&t=147940 ), and thank you "Prebandanna" for sharing your experience!

Hope you read this, I'm indebted to you both.

-Exdc

P.S. As soon as I finish my build, I will post pictures

Cool deal.

Thanks for the link!

I too am the proud owner of a bent upper. Replaced since but I just might try to save the bent one using this technique.

Was it pretty easy to tell the reciever was bent?

Yes; not by looking at it. It was impossible to see a difference just by looking at it... but try to slide the BGC in. If there is any unusual resistance (there should be next to none) then your receiver is bent. This is apparently more common than I thought. Most likely because people try to use vices without vice blocks when installing a barrel.

I have the same issue with one of my uppers, I'm going to have to give it a try

Well it worked!
Just tweaked the upper a little at a time till the carrier slid all the way down the channel with no resistance.
I did have to use a bit of emery cloth on a dowell rod for a couple of high spots caused by the wrench.
But now i dont need to buy another upper!

Thanks again for the heads up on the fix