It's as if the barrel isn't fully in battery in the slide? What happens if you remove the recoil spring assembly, fully seat the barrel in the slide, and re-assemble the pistol upside-down (without the recoil spring assembly at all)?
Assuming the locking block is the same (or at least mostly identical) to a 229/226, you wouldn't be able to get the takedown lever in if it weren't all the way down. Since the frame seems to be ok, there's got to be something up with how the barrel is in the slide?