I inherited a Century L1A1, and I know next to nothing about it.  I've read mixed things online (just like with any century made rifle).  Having never handled a FAL variant before - it feels solid, the action is smooth and it has been well maintained. I doubt it's been shot much, and probably not at all in the past 10 years.  I'm thinking it's an "early" century rifle, so I'm hoping it's not a dud.

My main question is: What mags do I need? I don't have any as of now, and I'm unsure about inch vs metric.

Also, what would it take to get rid of the thumbhole stock and put wood furniture on it?  I'm willing to give up any collector value in the thumbhole stock

Any other info you can throw my way would be great!  Yes I know to go to FAL files, I'm still digging through all the info over there

Congratulations, that is one of the good ones--  

What you have is an Inch FAL (also known as L1A1) made in Britain originally.   You can tell by the furniture, the Gas block,  and the UE (made by Enfield) lower stampings.  That upper receiver is one of the good ones, it looks to be an Imbel (Brazilian military built receiver).  The kits these were built on were often times very primo British kits and the barrels are often in excellent/almost new shape.  

1- To un-sporterize the stock you will have to replace/restore the pistol grip stud, which was ground down to fit the thumb-hole.  Not too hard, and there even was a guy on Fal-files that offered a service to do it for you if you are not too mechanically inclined.  Look around Fal files of instructions on that job.   Be aware of 922r will apply if you un-sporterize this one- and the US made parts are going to be a few bucks to get it done.  If you don't know about 922r be sure to read up on it before starting to convert it back.  The top one in this pic has had its stud ground down


2-  You r barrel was chopped a few inches.  You should have it re-threaded for the proper muzzle device, makes all the difference in looks and function.  Moses over at Fal-files used to do that very inexpensively, not sure if he still does or not.  

3- In terms of mags, yours is a metric receiver which often had the mag slot opened up for Inch mags by Century.  Check the mag insertion area on the receiver where the magazine rocks in on the front  to see if yours is Metric or inch cut.  If you just have the little cut as shown in the pic on the right, you can only use metric mags.  If you have the enlarged inch cut, you can use either, but metrics will sometimes be wobbly and may or may not cause an issue.  This is a good pic that shows the difference (metric is one on the right)  


And magazines,  metric is on the right again.  


Moses from the files makes some new manufactured ones that so far have been amazing in terms of fitting either metric or inch cut very well.  Moses Polymer mags

4-  And it comes with the Trilux scope, very nice.  Check the name plate on yours, if its in english its a British one.  If its in Hebrew its Israeli.  That scope alone is worth $350  

5-  and this is the thread you want to check to see what your baby will look like with some nice British wood  (or even a nice pebble grain stock) --   Fal Files- British pic thread

Awesome Akolleth, thanks for all that info!

It looks like I'll need metric mags.  

I would just abandon the idea of converting it, but this stock is horrible, I can't even operate the safety through it.  That may be a good summer project!

The Trilux is British then, it has English markings.

Just what I need - another rifle platform to get hooked on. Time to create an account over on FAL files and start hiding more money from the wife!

welcome to the FAL addiction, it's worse than the AR version.....  lots of helpful folks over on the FALFILES

If it were mine, I would buy an unaltered lower and just swap the parts from my old to the new.

Looks like AKOLLETH did very well by you, good man.

WOW, looks like a great score, plus a TRILUX SUIT on top of it! I bought the same thing, sans the sight, many moons ago. Your is way nicer than mine was. All you need to do, to make her 100X nicer to look at is throw on a proper butt stock and pistol grip. It will make a night and day differance. PM me if you want a very inexpencive not beat to death looking set. I'll kick them down cheap just to put an end to the CIA buthole stocks for good!

Ernst Armory has the lower receiver bushing for mounting the pistol grip. It's only $1.99 and they claim it doesn't require tools. Inch lower receivers can be hard to find when you want one and they are seldom cheap in price. From what I can see yours looks good. Think long and hard about the $1.99 fix. But, who knows, maybe you will get lucky and find a sweet inch lower cheap, LOL....

If the SUIT's LED module doesn't light up after a battery change let me know. I can talk you through the fix if you can't figure it out. I just fixed mine for $1.99 with a Radio Shack LED and still have one to spare. Basicaly just a fit and drop in part.

PS, your very lucky they didn't do the Inch magazine cut on your receiver. Yes, the Inch cut would make it L1A1 correct, but the Inch magazines cost much much more and are also harder to find than the metric mags. After a furnature fix and barrel threading with proper L1A1 flash hider mine was no collector but a nice looking L1A1. If it could take metric mags it would have been a big bonus for me.

It looks like you have a keeper to me!

I had thought about this - Am I understanding correctly that my lower is metric while the rest of the rifle is inch?   Could I buy one of the complete metric lowers from Ernst Amory and just snap it on?

Close, but no. What you have is an inch lower, you can tell by the markings (UE is Enfield, yours was made in 1965).  If you want to replace your lower you need to find another stripped inch lower.  The inch lower from Ernst Armory will work, but is pricey.  Inch lowers can be harder to find because so many had the pistol grip stud ground down that there aren't a whole lot of un-molested ones floating around for sale.  

What Century did back in the day was to take easily found Imbel metric upper receivers and to mate them to Inch kits they had imported since inch and metric upper receivers are very similar.  To make the Imbel receiver work on those inch kits they cut the charging handle slot to accommodate the folding inch handle, and often opened up the magazine locking tab recess to accommodate inch mags,  although not always.    They were then able to mount the barrel from the inch kit to the imbel upper, and were able to use the lower from the inch kit.

 

Couple of options if you want to try fixing the PG stud  yourself (not that hard)

1-  Use a bronze bushing-  Bronze replacement bushing   You can find them in hardware stores liek Home Depot or Ace hardware for really cheap ($2 or so IIRC) they are 1/4x3/8x15/32 bronze flange bushing (Hillman p/n 215870 or H# 882991) As long as your hole is not larger than the lip on the bushing it will go in the hole from above and can be left as is if you have a tight fit, or brazed in place if its a looser fit.   I did my own thumbhole conversion  this way and did not braze mine in.  So far so good, it has not come loose at all.   This is a very cheap option and is proven.  

2- Arizona response systems (AKA Gunplumber) has lowers with repaired studs for pretty reasonable  ARS L1A1 lower  You may even email them and see if they offer just a stud repair service?  

3-  Fal-Files member L/FN used to offer a very reasonable service to instal a stud back on your lower.  Maybe hit him up and see if he still does it.  L/FN member info

Yeah, I was thinking "metric mag catch = metric lower", my head's stuck in AR Land, duh!  I guess I'll get a stock removal tool, and have a bushing ready, then just see what that stud looks like once I get in there.

SnaggleTooth, I IM'd you about stock set

You can buy a COMPLETE metric lower and swap it for your current inch pattern lower. Then remove the rear sight assembly from your current inch lower and mount it onto the metric. All problems solved. This would be the most expensive option, but require the least amount of work.

Big thanks to SnaggleTooth for the deal on furniture + a flashider.  



I got a brass bushing from Lowe's, hacksawed off the century stock, bruised my hand on the recoil spring, and sighted her in.

My SUIT mount is so wobbly it's nearly useless.  Probably either just use irons or find a railed dust cover.

There's a tool made specifically for that.

How much you want fer'it?
Looks great. That's exactly the setup I want, just a good'ol L1A1 clone.

Just weld it on there.....the rivets are funky and if you want to make it useful, ya gotta weld it on there.

This was my wife's Father's gun, so it's staying in the family From what I can tell he bought it in the mid-90's during the AWB, so hopefully he would be glad to see it at least somewhat restored.



I don't have easy access to a welder - but don't think I haven't JB Welded a thing or two before...

I picked up a Lithgow L1A1-F1 (PNG clone) a few years ago. It is absolutely stunning and shoots very well. These rifle were originally made in Australia. Eventually, some of the Lithgow L1A1 kits arrived in the United States. This one was rebuilt on a DSA L1A1 receiver. The PNG stands for "Papau New Guinea". It was a version that Australia sent to the Defense Forces over there.

Man that thing's a beauty!

Me too.

I've been looking for a few years myself.

I hit it with a spot of jb weld.  We'll see if it holds up.

Worst case scenario, I made useless mount ugly and useless.