Here are a few more pictures, in some the black dye gets a purple tint from the tungsten lights.
Top NDS, center PWA, bottom Sendra
Lower receiver and buffer tube chunks, the buffer tube end on the left has a wear shadow, gray on top, black anodizing dye beneath, gold anodizing under the black. (It doesn't look gold because the thin coat of black dye has a purple tint to it) Buffer tube ring on the right is bright gold. All pieces came from boywonder777, all but the lone buffer tube end were said to come from Hydra-Matic rifles. (Correct me if I am wrong about this) Buffer tube end on left came later, I'm not sure what it came from.
The PWA lower had more texture than I realized and it isn't exactly what I was expecting. It might grow on me more. If anyone out there is thinking of doing something like this I would recommend against using one of the older lower receivers. I have only contacted Victor at US Anodizing via email, maybe I should have called him. After he received the lowers he warned me they were not heat treated the same as the upper receiver (or a NDS / real Colt / Hydra-Matic) receiver and it could be difficult to get the gold color. I went ahead and did it. I would recommend using a NDS lower or a 80% receiver. Victor had me ask NDS to
not bead blast the lower (because the gold upper was very smooth) and they obliged. Mike did warn me that there could be flaws in the anodizing but that kind of thing doesn't really bother me and you wouldn't really notice it on a project like this. I had buffer tubes anodized black over gold like the original crushed ones but the gold didn't come out as bright as the sample pieces.
One more pic, I think
some people out there like this kind of lineup.
Link to
zoomable full size copy.
ETA: One more pic, clarification