Hey folks. So here's the story. I've been the owner of three different Title 1 m203s--one LMT, and two Colt. The LMT was the first one I bought and it was as perfectly black as any standard AR-15 you could imagine. It's very nicely finished and I've always been impressed with its quality. But when AU released the Colts, I jumped on that as the Colt was the one I had always really wanted (because roll mark). The first Colt 203 I received was about as purple as a lilac-covered Barney after an MMA match at a grape stomp. I sold it in order to fund getting a replacement from AU, which I was assured would be black. The replacement was a dark gray, but still purplish, and definitely not black.
Be that as it may, here's what I want to do. I intend to completely strip the Colt down to the aluminum receiver and have it re-anodized so it is properly black. After removing the original anodizing, I'm going to use the opportunity to clean up some of the ugly machining and dremel marks as well (I'm a machinist in training). I'm not concerned about loss of thickness--that can be built back up when it is re-anodized.
(part 1 of 2, since I'm limited to 2000 characters)