First time builder here.  Few questions.

Gunshow in town this weekend (Crossroads in Phx.), and I'm looking at a Romanian parts kit from J&G, that will go with a US made 7 parts kit and a receiver from JoeKen.(that comes with a rivet kit).

How difficult is it to throw one of these together?

How does the home builder do the riveting part?

How do I tell (aside from the obvious appearance) a good Romanian parts kit?  Are there marking that denote a better kit from a not so good one?  Or is it all appearance based?   Are the barrels, as they come in the kit, easy to inspect for wear and tear??

any help is appreciated.

Quoted: How difficult is it to throw one of these together? How does the home builder do the riveting part? How do I tell (aside from the obvious appearance) a good Romanian parts kit?  Are there marking that denote a better kit from a not so good one?  Or is it all appearance based?   Are the barrels, as they come in the kit, easy to inspect for wear and tear?? any help is appreciated.

Depending on your metal working skills really, take your time, go slow measure all your trunnion hole 3-4 times before you drill(use a dial caliper for precise measurement). What i do is drill the hole smaller then the rivet then use a file to fit the rivet snugly, then i use a set of modified bolt cutters with a bucking bar to set the rivers. There are many tutorials on this site that describe the basic steps of assembly or you can use Pookies site which helped me alot on my first build.
As far as what to look for in a kit, basically look through the bore and make sure its clean, the shinnier it is the better, metal finish is really up to you, most guys refinish the entire gun anyway, a lot of rommy kits out there come from unfired guns, i have 4 that i doubt were ever fired so the finish on the metal is beautiful as it is, they are parkerized. For your first build pick up a parkerized receiver and pick out a kit with excellent finish, so once you put it together you wont have to worry about a finish as it would be completely parked. If you have any questions that you cant figure out post them on this site and you will get a lot of help. BEWARE it is addicting! McM

Basic tools you will need.
Bench vise, Hammer, Assortment of files, Dremmel (helps a lot), bench grinder to modify a pair of bolt cutters, a good surdy punch for removing barrel pins, penetrating oil (kroil), I use a gear puller to remove the trunnion and a brass hammer to beat it back in, and the most basic of all tools is knolodge which you will gain by hanging out here.

How do you throw one of these together?  Pretty easy, really.  Just do the research then ask questions later to fill in the gaps.

Here is a good place to look and do research, also www.gunco.net is good.  Look in gunco.net library and search from the beginning.  Tons of good tutorials there if you search in the Library from the beginning.

Any matching number Romy kit will be fine. If you're concerned about appearance buy the best looking one without fsb or gas block cant. For the money how can you go wrong?

Go here, http://pookieweb.dyndns.org:61129/default.htm read and learn.  Warning, once you start you can't build just one.

Pookie