I got back my parts from Victor and was ABSOLUTLY,TOTALLY,AND COMPLETELY amazed at the results,my lower was really ruff,but he made it look BRAND SPANKIN NEW,,so I thru another challenge at him.I had gotton a beat up (looks like ) and essential arms aluminum stock.Wrong lever held on by 2 standard hex nuts,inside of the tube was rudely reamed out,too big for mil spec tube,too tight for commercial tube.I was able to clean it up with emory cloth so it works on the comm.Anyway decided to strip it for my early  XM177 dummy gun that you guys have helped me with. Victor is gonna strip and anodize it for the proper look..I had asked if possible,(yes I know how busy he is) but asked anyway if he could have it back to me by memorial weekend for our display,he said a big maybe,BUT here's the kind of guy he is,he offered to LOAN me one of his originals if he did'nt get mine done in time.. I've never met the man before,have had just the one dealing with him,but he made this generous offer to me... So if anyone ever has doubts about him,tellum to email me or show them this post. THANK YOU VICTOR!!!!! Just a footnote,I do have an original so I won't be borrowing Victors,,besides,god,I would'nt want that responsibility as these original stocks are gold.....I HIGHLY RECOMMEND VICTOR AND HIS STAFF TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Victor is a true artisan and a gentleman.  You'll be very pleased with the stock.

Nice Hal!! Yea,my lower was hit with a coarse wire wheel by former owner,guess he did'nt like the black,but the wheel left heavy grind marks all over,I had painted it 3 color cammo (1978) and left it till this past Jan,then stripped it and remembered why I painted it..Now it looks as good as a fresh off the showroom floor NDS lower..

Got any pictures?

I'll add shortly and edit to add.Takin pics now. Dark areas are clp weeping from assembly,, altho doing an E2 I'm using a partial fence palmetto armory lower,so I went with Heatnbeats dimpled transitional pins,transtitional bolt catch,and early straight lined mag release button.So is it a "late E1,,or early E2???  

This was kinda the same condition.
It was a new EA coated smooth stock that I sent to another refinisher who stripped it and Norelled it.  You could see heavy sandblasting marks and scrapes etc.  Victor stripped the Norells and cleaned it up and hit it with XM Grey.  I now look at well worn parts differently when buying. They can be reborn.

Hal,,yes they can,old parts have been my best friends on these projects,but I gotta say the coating on the EA is tough stuff,,I tried all paint strippers from paint stores,acetone,methanol,tried heating with propane torch,had a guy try soda blasting (sand blasting but with baking soda),even called Mr Johnson at EA to find out what exactly the coating is,,he says it's powdercoat,so I went on line and found a company that sells a corrosive chemical stripper for powder coat ( was told 3 hrs to work) ended up leaving it overnite,,and that did'nt work,so when Victor offered to do it,I said Heck YES!!!!  And I know I'll love the results!

That fresh anodizing is really thirsty when you get it back.  I slathered CLP on my parts and zipped them into a freezer bag for about a week.  

101

First off let me start by saying Victor does some amazing work, & I am in no way knocking him or US Anodizing (I am a happy customer & will continue to be so in the future), but I doubt you will have it back by Memorial Day weekend.

I had put up a auction on GB for which he was the winning bidder. I asked him if he'd trade his services for the winning bid price. He was more than happy to do it, & even told me he would have it done in two weeks from the time he received my parts. Well 6 weeks later I received my parts. I did send in a couple of extra parts (with appropriate payment), but I did not think it would hold up the two week promise. I know he is a busy person & all, but if he could not make the deadline he set for himself, he should not have made it. I would have still gladly sent him the parts for trade if he had told me it would take longer, as I was in no hurry for the parts.

Just being honest here. Again, I'm completely happy with his services, but I think his promises are bigger than he can keep with the demand for his services from other people's parts & the high demand of the NDS parts that he serves to, too. Which for him, I am glad his business is doing as well as it is.

Flame away.

Got some parts back from Victor last week.  2 position tube, trigger guards, mag buttons and a couple of charging handles.

I sent one black, unused charging handle and a grey GI (?) handle that looked like hell - not just anodizing gone but aluminum worn away.  
I now can't tell which CH is which - they both look new!!

Can't say enough good things about US Anodizing and Victor.

Wow !
He must have some magic little elves there.  That does look brand new. Looks good.

I can't find a scratch or gouge from the wire wheel ANYWHERE on this lower..He even informed me the the lower takedown pin holes were slightly oversized from wear,so he had his elves build up the holes with the anodize,pins fit like a glove now !!!! I'ma SUPER happy camper !!

Victor did a great job on the parts I sent to him and the turn around time was more than acceptable.  I was not sure if I wanted an original upper refinished or not so I asked him to take a look at it when I sent the other parts to him.  Victor told me it was an original finish that did not need anything done to it, he could have just as easily told me it needed refinishing charging me for the refinishing, disassembly and reassembly of the upper.  To me that is honesty you rarely find these days.  Below is a photo of the upper and lower together, as you can see his color is a very close match to the original and after having spend many years in the Army having a slight mismatch is much closer to reality than having all parts exactly the same color.





As soon as another lower from NoDak arrives I will be sending it to Victor for anodizing.

Victor has anodized all of my retro builds, every one of them has turned out great, including my XM177E1/609. He anodized the upper, lower, receiver extension, and EA CAR stock...
http://i550.photobucket.com/albums/ii438/North_Dallas01/XM177E1.jpg

Although I haven't sent anything in to Victor yet, he has always been very nice about quoting me prices or answering questions via email, something I know is a huge time issue for business owners. He is definitely one of the good guys.

Morg,If and when you do send to Victor,,you WILL be thrilled with the results,,I'm tellin you all,I was embarrassed to post a pic of my lower,it was THAT bad,,now I wished I had just so you could see the before and after....I swear on my Mom and Dad's grave,,that bad to that good..THANK YOU VICTOR!!!!!

When I have my Colt Lightweight XSE frame golf balled and a Smith & Alexander beavertail fitted to it, it will go to Victor for fresh anodizing.

I'm also going to order three of NoDak Spud's XM receivers, two in the white for custom marking. Victor will get those, too.

He did an awesome job on my NoDak for my retro only 9 days turnaround as well, very highly recommended.

ETA better make post 1187 count for something.

Nice rifle.