I recently sent my Olympic RR M-16 to Victor at U.S. Anodizing to be put in spec and re-anodized. I can’t begin to say how impressed and pleased I am with his work and service.  I’ve owned the lower for a few years and I run the crap out of it, but it definitely had issues.  I had thinned down the rear takedown pin just to get an upper on it and you still had to drive the pins out with a hammer. It wouldn’t accept a Hahn 9mm block and a lot of mags were snug.

I emailed Victor and asked him about working on it for me. He was familiar with all of the “Olympic” issues and was confident that they could be fixed.  He also had concerns as the lower had some previous work and had been Ceracoated.  We agreed to do the best we could and I sent him the lower. He told me to expect 4-6 weeks for the work to be completed and we agreed on a price of $800.00 plus shipping. I boxed it up and sent it registered mail with a metric ton of insurance on it.

He emailed me upon receiving it and let me know he thought it would be good to go after stripping the ceracoat and inspecting the previous work. He emailed me again a week later to let me know the machine work was done and to confirm my color of choice (Colt gray). A week later he let me know it was done and on it’s way home. I got it back today less than 5 weeks after shipping it to him, including the slow ass registered mail both ways.

I am just knocked out over how well it turned out. Victor is a wizard!  The finish looks great and is a great match for my original Colt Commando parts kit. Every upper I’ve tried on it fits great and the Hahn 9mm block drops right in. I can’t wait to get it out this weekend and try it out.

Victor, if you’re a member here, thanks again! You are the man!









BTW, as many of you know, the marking on the the early Olympics are very faint. This one has had all of the markings marked in duplicate on the right side of the receiver. The original markings on the left side are unaltered and intact, but they are faint.

Great looking!  I like the idea of duplicating the markings.  I have one of these lowers myself and mine are “stealth” also.

They're such a huge investment, one I hope to make one day, and it's nice to know their are quality people out there willing and capable of doing work like that. Looks beautiful man, congrats.

Looks great!

I had victor at USAnodizing work on my Olympic lower as well and am more than happy with the results. Glad I got it done rather than modify uppers to fit which is what the previous owner did.

That looks perfect, congratulations in making another Oly gun 100 percent!  Love to see the old receivers better than new.

May I ask what was the problem with yours?

My NWAC RR Oly SGW the shelf is high and so it works with only a modified shaved BCG but a cheaper fix was the top part of the sear was shaved a tiny bit....

and all is well but it is something I can live with....

I wanted to m60 Joe or others or maybe Victor but as long as I shave a new sear top part..it will work fine.

OP, if you don’t mind I’d like to piggyback on this thread (vs. starting a new thread).  I can’t seem to find an answer for this question.  Is it legal/allowed to have a lower sent out for repair from your dealer (NFA jail) while you wait for your stamp?

Yes

Thank you!

I’ve done it before.

Mine ran fine, but was very limited as to what uppers would fit it.  I ground the rear takedown pin so most of mine would fit, but it still required a hammer and punch to changer uppers.  It also wouldn’t accept a Hahn 9mm mag block.  My deck height was close enough for good function just not good fit.

All of those issues are fixed now.

Looks good but Olympic?

I paid $12,000 for it and spent $800 fixing it.

A Colt is $28,000.

I can buy a lot of ammo for $15,000.

I thought the exact same thing only instead of ammo i bought an M11/9 and lage upper with the money I saved.

I've never had someone shoot my M16 and afterwards go "oh, it's not a colt"
In fact no one has ever mentioned anything about the manufacturer. The only people who realize there is a price or quality difference are other MG collectors and they are usually just excited to meet someone who share a similar interest.

Nice, I need some work on my lower (sear hole) and plan on waiting for M60Joe to be taking work again. I emailed Victor just in case, but I also see they are not taking work at the moment either.

The notice on the website about not accepting new work is for commercial anodizing.  They’re good to go on Class 3 stuff, as far as I know.

I paid 1600 for mines in 2001 with the guy moving to the Philippines and he was local.

Weird transaction ....but it went well.

He is the man!

Nice! How long ago did you pay $12k?

About 2 1/2 years ago.

I got lucky.

Yeah. I looked at one sub $10k about 9 years ago.  Ended up buying a house instead.  According to the tax office, I've made more off the house, but it still sucks not having an M16.

Ah gotcha.

He asked me to send in pictures of my sear holes so we'll see.

SGW has soft aluminum so the pin holes tend to egg out. Easy enough to fix, and once done are GTG. Many have been fixed along with the other issues that occur with the SGW receivers.

I nabbed an Olympic last year for $13,200 and am doing the same repair with US Anodizing.

As more of a shooter than collector, the Olympic to Colt differential doesn’t bother me and is funding another transferable.

Sending (actually driving) my SP1 lower to Victor for sear hole repairs. Ill be sure to post a bunch of pics once I get it back!

Please do. Also, please give a little background on the need for a repair (round count, use, etc.)

Did you send it in with all the internals?

I have an Oly lower with all new internals and a geissele auto trigger.   I’d like all that to work.

Basically I’d like a clone of a new CNC auto lower in something the NFA agrees I can own.  

I’ve shot a brand new Spikes auto lower and the function and fitment of any upper is amazing.   Of course it belonged to my dealer.

Summary:

Received SP1 December 2017. My round count estimates.....800 rounds of 556, 200 rounds of 9mm, 500 rounds of 22. Give or take.

The owner before me was NOT the original owner but he said he only put about 200 rounds through it (he has another M16 that was his shooter)

All in all it looked in good shape.

I think the issue was a sloppy conversion. The sear hole was likely hand drilled, and the walls were milled very thin internally. The sear hole was/is also higher than it should be, so the bolt may be hitting the sear lower than normal and causing more stress on the sear pin, and in turn, the sear hole.

SO. My dad met Victor today (nothing but great things to say). They looked over the lower. He was a little concerned with how thin the receiver wall was but will be able to plug it. The plug will protrude on the inside a little for greater strength. I was actually hoping that would be the solution, this is my shooter so as long as shes built to run then I'm happy.

My dad also wanted AUTO stamped on it, so that is happening.

Here is what it looks like in its current state.

Wow, that conversion definitely looks to have been done free-hand! Crazy how they ground out the walls to accommodate the autosear. Looks like it was scalloped by hand using a grinding wheel.

Ya it wasn't as obvious in the initial pics, and I also was taking someones advice on buying it (trustworthy person). I guess neither of us looked super close. I got it for 17k so if I have to pay a little more to make her golden, I won't cry about it

I sent the stripped lower and the 9mm Mag block. Victor specifically asked for it to be stripped.  In spec is in spec, your internals and trigger should be fine.

Thanks.

Just got it back, made a new post. looks amazing