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Posted: 12/30/2011 9:40:14 PM EDT
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No, not the religious kind - the Saiga kind. I started out with a .223 with the Tapco T6 quasi-conversion. Since Christmas is the time of year you hit people up for stuff you probably wouldnt buy on your own, I got the cheap Tapco full conversion from Carolina Shooters Supply.
I learned several things. It's easier than I was expecting. The most difficult part were those damn rivets from the trigger plate. I learned, though, that drilling them out from behind with a drill press is much more efficient than grinding them from the trigger guard side. Make sure you have a good center punch to start your drilling. One of the problems I ran into was my lack of a center punch. The rivet I. The rear that you can drill from through the stock hole in the tang was no problem. When the head breaks, you know when to stop. The rivet in the front was more difficult because I started off center and I stopped, worried I was going to drill the hole out and end up with a hole that looks more like an "8". I learned that a $50, two-speed, cordless Dremel with the basic attachments that come with it is overrated, underpowered, has too little charge in the battery, and is overmatched by Soviet steel rivets. I started out trying to grind all three rivets, bit there is just too little power and not enough charge to do this quickly. I would grind for about 5 minutes then need to recharge for 20-30 minutes. Once I finally got one rivet ground flush, I had little luck getting it out. Again, having a proper punch would have been nice. Hence I ended up at the drill press drilling them out from behind (I always did like drilling it from behind). Much easier and much quicker! Wasted a $50 gift card on a Dremel. I did find out though that Lowes sells a contraption/attachment which turns your Dremel into a small drill press. Just make sure you get a stronger motor and better grind stones if you go the Dremel route. I used the cheapest paint I came to. Colorline or something from Napa. Went there intending to get hi temp engine paint, but figured I will likely never shoot more than 5 or 10 rounds quick enough to create massive heat. We'll see how that works. End day 1 (damn those rivets!). Day 2 went much easier. I assembled the trigger and hammer and got them set in place with little issue. I did not reinstall the BHO cause there is a low likelihood I could figure it out and not expose the children in the room to language unbecoming a good father. I'm not 100% convinced I have the retaining plate in correctly, but I guess find out once I shoot it a while. Installing the trigger guard was tricky because there is little room to get my pliers in the trigger guard to tighten the bolts (proper tools = correct size wrench + a proper hex key). Once again I come to a situation where the proper tools are very helpful. When Installing the pistol grip, it is very helpful to have a deep well socket and rachet set (10mm I think - I dunno I had to get a buddy with the proper tools). The very last thing was putting the stock on - easy enough right? Not if you dont have the stock fully seated and don't realize it until after all the screws are in place and tightened. I'm gonna have to leave it, though, because there is not enough real-estate between the bad holes and where the new holes should be for it to be sturdy. Whew! So in review - get all the proper tools together before hand - drill press or a steady hand with a hand held drill to drill the rivets out from behind, a "better" Dremel and attachments if you go that route, appropriate sized deep well socket or a socket extension, wrench, hex key (preferably one with a "T"'handle). I also changed out the rear sight for a Krebs. I used the drill press to remove that, too. The guides I used the most were the videos on Carolina shooters supply web site and Stu's Olsens jeep siteStu Olsens Jeep Site. The pics are crappy. 
Where I screwed up the stock. How can I fix that? 
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