Hey guys!

I just bought a Colt Pre-A1 upper on the EE here for a early AR project I am doing.  It came in today, and I am VERY happy with it.  However, a few questions spring to mind.

1: The finish on the upper is a greenish/grayish color and I am mating it to a Pre-Ban Olympic Arms lower.  The lower is black and the colors/textures do not match.  I know that Oly has a remanufacturing service where they will remanufacture a Pre-Ban lower and it retains it's pre-ban status.  Effectively a brand-new pre-ban lower.  Should I have them do me a new lower and have them color-match it to the upper, or should I just ignore the color mismatch?

2: The upper has some storage/handling rash.  No big deal really as it adds character to it.  I mean, shit, it's got to be 40 years old!  

Anyway, the only "problem" is a few vertical marks along the rear, ramped part of the front sight assembly.  When sighting down the sights, the marks are a bit distracting.  This is not intended to be a museum piece, so should I live with it or is there a way to touch up the parkerizing? (I assume it's parkerizing.)

3: The breechface and the inside of the barrel extension are a silvery color.  Is this the chrome?  My other AR is non-chromed, and the breechface/barrel extension look greenish/gray like the bolt and carrier.  I've never owned a chromed rifle and am wondering if this is what it is supposed to look like.

4: On the underside of the barrel, near the flash suppressor, it is stamped, "C MP C".  Somebody is advertising a rifle on the EE with a barrel stamped, "C MP B"  What is the difference?  I know the "C MP" stand for "Colt Magnetic Particle" (tested) but what does the "C" or "B" stand for?

5: How rare are actual early Chrome, Unnotched bolt carriers and bolts?  I am wanting to make this at least "look" as real as possible and would like to know how long I am going to have to look for the right part.  Do the early carriers have the firing pin shrouded?  I would like the pin to be shrouded and I have heard that the early unnotched carriers were M16 carriers, so it wold be shrouded.

I know this is a lot of questions, but I am embarking on a new project and need all the help I can get. :D

Thanks for any replies.

Olympic Arms does not have the ability to re-finish in a defunct Colt color?

A product called Super-Blue does a pretty good job touching up the finish on scratches on the steel part of an AR type finish.

All Colt would be chrome lined

Non shrouded bolt carrier was done to help keep you legal and to resist temptation.

I'm sure they have the ability, (and I guess I was a bit ambiguous in my first quesion), but my question should be; "should I go through the expense and time just to have it cosmetically go together?"



I'll have to check it out.



I figure that, I just wanted to know about the barrel markings and the color of the breechface.



Yes, but it 1: chews the hell out of the firing pin collar, and 2: looks like hell compared to a shrouded carrier.  I could care less about the sear trip, but I like the shrouded pin.  A buddy of mine just bought a brand-new Bushmaster.  Guess what it had? Full-circle carrier in the rear, but milled back to not trip an autosear, and a [b]shrouded firing pin[/b].  If they are doing it on new-production rifles, I assume a carrier in a similar configuration is out there.