I am new to the website but have lurked about for well over a year reading all the Retro threads. I was bitten by the M-16 bug when I first joined the Army in 1988, and the AR bug when I bought my first AR carbine as a police patrol carbine in 1997. About a year ago I was culling through a friends parts box and cobbled together a 604 clone, and found a LM marked M16A1 upper (with forward assist and ejection port door). I was shocked when I wiped down the upper with CLP and found the anodized purple hue it had next to the 604 upper. All rambling aside I built the 604 on a NDS partial fence lower, but for this upper I wanted to give it more of an arsenal rework / rebuild look and am debating going the 80% lower route.

I know I have heard members talking about the work Braceman does, but I was trying to figure out if I am going to take a step in machining up an 80% lower, and trying to build something kind of stand alone with this upper, what sounds really good for the lower receiver engraving? GM Hydramatic, or maybe H&R? Or would just a Colt M16A1 logo be better?

I'd post photos of my 604 build and the parts I am pulling together for the LM upper build but I don't have a photo account anyplace.

Also:  Is there a thread that shows off all of Braceman's engraving?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

My personal favorite when it comes to 80% lowers:  Mattel.

Someone here just did a Balimoy (SP?) lower. LM (Martin Marietta) made replacement uppers - maybe a faux Marietta lower would be cool? You'd have to do some work looking up their logo, but that shouldn't take long. Jes' sayin it'd be DIFFERENT.

Well I don't want to go the fictional Mattel route haha  

Could an LM receiver have been a battlefield replacement in the 1970-72 time frame? Or did these come along later?

My 604 turned out really well (made me proud to put all the parts into a whole), and I hope to be able to do the same (with a bit more expended effort) on this project. The M16A1 will fill a gap between my Colt M-16 model 604 clone, my FN AR15A2, Colt AR15A3 (tactical elite), and my M-4 clone.I don't have the fortune to build every variant so this may be my last build for some time to come.

My 604 build on the NDS lower and a few of my 20rd mags

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Same 604 clone rifle with a USAF Vietnam era jungle blouse.

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One of the CIA contract M16's for the Contras marked with P&M parking meter corporation's cover for foreign manufacture engravings, indicating Guadalajara Mexico, from the Bush Sr. VP/Clinton Governor days during US involvement in Nicaragua.

If you have a picture of that rollmark, I'd love to see it.

Rockwell made parking meter's in the 60's. Park-O-Meters.

They have an AWESOME Logo for an AR too!





1967 ad

OK Contra era is quite a bit later but my head was stuck in the late 60's.

Park-O-Meter -POM




ETA: the Rockwell logo above would be awesome for a roll mark

Now those manufacturers logos would be really cool. Thanks for the input.

I put my barrel on tonight and then dropped the upper on my NDS lower. I am digging the bronze color a lot. Sorry for the cell phone pic.

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I found this Google-ating

Quote:

"Interestingly, Iver Johnson Arms reportedly built lower receivers and parts for M16's to be supplied to the Contras as part of a CIA plan after it's move to Arkansas in the late 1970's.

Under federal law, arms companies must create a paper trail for tracking and control of weapons, especially for components that go into fully automatic weapons. All international sales require an End-User Certificate, which traces the weapon from origin to destination. The Boland Amendments, which banned sales to the Contras, effectively forced the CIA to find a source of weapons without such certifications.

The secrecy required to produce the nontracable parts posed an immediate problem for Iver Johnson. Iver Johnson was working on a classified contract with the United States Navy to product a .50 caliber sniper rifle. This required government inspectors' scrutiny of the company's operations in it's location in Jacksonville, Arkansas, where it was then producing copies of the M1 carbine.

To circumvent this scrutiny, a decision had been made to cast critical, and untraceable, parts at a location other than the Iver Johnson plant in Jacksonville, Arkansas. A group lead by Barry Seal, who supposedly worked for Oliver North, set up shop that would contain the casting operation in the isolated town of Mena, Arkansas, nestled in the Ouachita Mountains. Because Iver Johnson was an established firm, it provided instant cover for the clandestine work that was slated to be done in Mena. On paper, Philip Lynn Lloyd, a wealthy Arkansas businessman with close ties to the Arkansas bond industry, was listed as a principal in the company and the man responsible for the relocation from New Jersey to Arkansas. Lloyd was later convicted in federal court in Little Rock in 1990 for bankruptcy fraud and conspiracy when his financial empire collapsed.

The plan was to build lower receivers for full auto M16's that had no serial number that could not be traced back to anyone in the United States. Obviously, the CIA did not want serial numbers on weapons going to the Contras during a period when Congress had banned the sales.

It appears the deal did not work out when security became an issue. Insiders and cronies from the administration of then Governor Bill Clinton learned through a security leak what Iver Johnson was really doing in Arkansas and demanded a piece of the action themselves. POM, a parking meter company in Russellville, Arkansas, was owned by a Clinton crony and leveraged it's way into the underground arms-manufacturing loop to make certain M16 parts alongside parking meters.

I'ver Johnson's participation in the Iran/Contra issue is a very compicated and interesting story that ended up ruining the company in bankruptcy in 1993."


(Information from the book Compromised by Terry Reed and John Cummings)