I received my Grade1 kit from Bob and was pretty impressed- especially with the ruggedness of the folding metal stock.  There is a lot of metal in that thing.  When people say "stamped" I'm thinking of stamped metal toys like those old wind-up type and this thing blew me away.  The metal used in the underfolder is about 3mm thick, please correct me if I'm wrong.

This is a 1980

Aside from the folder, I'm also impressed with:
1.  How shiny and nice the piston is
2.  How nice and unused the pouch is
3.  How perfect one of the mags is- it is unused while the other has some wear- big deal.
4.  The amount of parts with matching serial numbers- so far I've found 7 (see pic below) !!


I've also got some questions like:
1.  Am I missing any of the small parts (see picture) ??
2.  Is the rear trunnion supposed to look like it was smashed with a hammer to remove it?
3.  The inside bottom part of the brake has a little rusty material which I would like to assume is unburnt powder or other crap and not metal from the brake itself.  Either way, it sounds like a good part to replace with a US part.
4.  Some monkey got his hands on vice grips or pliers and used them to actuate the lever that releases the gas block.  He really screwed that area up really good!  
5.  Are there any of these stamped numbers that matter besides the serial number?  I've got them all over.  There are several 2's stamped across the barrel under the gas tube.  
6.  Where did this sling come from?  The little leather tip doesn't fit the front sling hook very well and the sling is wider than the loop on the stock.  This sling was not used with this rifle.
7.  Do I have the right doodads in the cleaning kit?  




the finish on the folder is EXCELLENT:



Sling hook is the only worn part on the rifle:



I didn't find Vicegrips in the cleaning kit, who did this:


the ONLY nick or mark on the folder is right here:



leading edge of brake:





a little wear underneath the bolt (what does that number mean?)::


The trunnion that was run over by a tank AFTER it was removed from the rifle:

serial numbered parts:


Here is a closeup of barrel markings:


you can see the rivets are still in the front trunnion and were barely drilled into:







The sling is odd- leather and nylon with aluminum hardware:

my gr 2 from AA looks like that except its got some mismatched parts/ numbers and I'm waiting on some parts it was missing, but Bob assured me that they'd be sent in a timely fashion, the front trunion, barrel, bolt and carrier are in excelent condition the finish is 95% on these parts, the dust cover and the folder are missing a little finish but are in good shape, the mags are like new with very little handling wear, as for the rear trunion being bent, Bob told me that they are all in that condition and will straiten back up pretty easily.

that rear trunnion is bent metal anyway.  I hope it's easy to straighten enough so that it doesn't twist or pull on the receiver or bind up the folder- which doesn't fit into it right now because of the degree at which it is bent.

There must be some mistake... you got my kit...  Oh well, congrats on a really exceptional kit!

Now you need to find the matching #s bayonet for her:

www.ak47.net/forums/topic.html?b=4&f=95&t=73961

Great looking kit,  Wish mine looked that good.  Those are some great photos by the way.  What did you take them with and how did you shoot them?  

You just pushed me over the edge... I must have one

ssgbpowell-  What about your kit doesn't look as nice?  Thanks for the compliment on the photos.  I use a Canon PowerShot A400:

and mine is gunmetal colored, not pastel

If I take pictures in the afternoon, I usually do it in my bedroom, on the floor.  The room is on the west side and I open up the blinds all the way.  I make sure I'm off in a corner taking the pictures with my back to the windows to kill as much direct light as possible.  All of the light bouncing off of the white walls is enough to keep everything bright.  I used to up the exposure manually on the camera but now just set it to "cloudy."  I usually sit indian-style and rest my elbows on my knees and try to keep as still as possible.  I take the pictures at 2048x1280 resolution so I can crop and resize them in photoshop and get all the extra quality I can out of them.  

Sparky- don't blame your addiction on me!

Are you saying your spring does not look like one in my picture?  i think it's like a disconnector spring.  don't worry about it if you are sending the parts out to get built- the builder will probably swap in a good one for free.  Blackwell Industries will be doing my build and when I talked to Mike about one of the folder pins possibly being a little bent, he said if it was just a $1 part they'd replace it for nothing.

I've found out that the fire control parts are ALL the original full auto parts.   that goofy looking one to the right of the three pins is the sear or sear trip? and it's serial numbered and matches the parts kit.  the top right part is a rate reducer and the spring below it is for the rate reducer kit!