Got to reading another chaps topic about moding his Galil and it struck me....about the only thing one could not do using a standard Saiga in .308, in making it look like a galil, is the difference in "cut" of the reciever line; ie the bottom of the Galil's reciever changes angle at one point and sweeps up to meet the handguard. An AK has a constant sweep.
So then my question becomes...might it indeed be possible to modify a storebought Saiga .308 to appear like the far more expensive, and rare Galil?
Install a Krebs rear sight base, grind off the front sight base and round the 'foundation' off. Install a Galil type handguard clip and either use a custom wood handguard or modify an existing Galil handguard to fit. One could then whack the front sight base off and either through some careful welding & pinning install the ears and the post on the existing gas block, or just yank the AK block and install a Galil gas block/fsb, sleeving or relieving the replacement block depending on weather the difference in Galil barrel bigger or smaller than the Saiga barrel. Final step would be either a fixed ACE folder or a real Galil buttstock modified to fit the Saiga reciever, and an ACE Galil style pistolgrip. Muzzle accessories would be left up to the respective shooter, and an extended "galil" style mag release, well, thats not too difficult to find. The RSA one would probably do very nicely.
The one last bit would be the magazine, and I've been told Galil mags can be made to fit into a Saiga with some tinkering/filing.
I'd kind of prefer M14 magazines as they tend to be cheaper and more plentiful...about the same cost around here as a good "new in wrap" FAL mag. Was it Campy who had the Saiga modified to take M14 mags? And if so, was it Mark Krebs who did the conversion of the rifle?