So I bought a used rifle back in April. Fairly new to the rifle side of firearms. The shop I went to had a very small selection of rifles of course. And this one had a bunch of goodies already on it. Anyway, it's a Palmetto State. It's got the Magpul grip and plastic handguard. And an A2 front sight post. Not sure how I feel about the handguard and the A2. I've read that the A2 is removable but what would it take to take it off and swap the plastic handguard with a metal rail style. Or is that even worth it?  Maybe I should mention it's running a light and a red dot.

The handguard generally comes off with no tools, but the railed replacements can be had in versions that simply mount like the plastic handguards do, or free-float versions that clamp to the existing regular barrel nut, or in versions that require removing the barrel and replacing the barrel nut with a special one for that handguard.

To remove front sight bases, use something like this, punches, and a BFH.

To replace drop-in handguards, just pull back on the ring in front of the receiver. If they're snug, use this.

It can be changed into whatever configuration you want, but right now I'd get some time running it like it is and see what (if anything) you actually feel that you need to change. The first one I built had a FSB/magpul handguard set up and I soon decided that it had to go, because all the cool kids had free float. That's a poor reason to change what I was already happy with, but it was my first one and I wanted to be cool too ??. I still think about building another one in the original configuration. There's something to be said for a simple, basic rifle and shooting m193 you're not going to notice a benefit from free floating. I'm not saying dont do it. It's your gun. Get some time on it before you make changes though and see what will actually be a benefit. I'd look at upgrading the trigger before spending the money an a rail.

I agree with what Stowe said. Learn your rifle. Then if you need to make changes go for it. But I'd either buy or build a new upper for it. Keeping the original upper means that screwing up something still leaves you with a functioning rifle.