Received my AIM Surplus Ishapore 2A on Friday.
I, also, paid the extra ten bucks. Bore is good, could not find any rust anywhere (but have a long way to go yet), appears to have matching numbers. Major repair done on heel of stock. Extremely non-matching pieces of wood inserted and two significant cracks in the rear-most one.
After detailed disassembly and 1-1/2 hours of scrubbing with mineral spirits, I got most of the grease off of the rifle. So much grease, lots of it old and oxidized (not to mention huge amnounts of old black paint) that there was no way anyone could have determined the actual condition of the weapon.
The coating of black paint was so thick that the screw slots could not be seen and it was almost impossible to slide the adjustable rear sight fore and aft. Further, the lever at the left rear of the action was not movable. Had to use lots of paint solvent and ice pick to get it where it would move. What is that anyway? Safety? Bolt release?
About half of the screws were all buggered up from morons using ill-fitting screwdrivers and unless I can dress them up properly with a Dremel Tool, I'll have to get replacements from someplace. I'm thinking that I'll start looking around for replacement stock parts as well, particularly the butt, which is really bad.
After much more scrubbing (some with a fine stainless steel wire brush) I was able to see the stamping on the right side of the receiver where the two halves of the stock come together. It is a 1965 gun.
The plan is to use sufficient paint remover to get ALL of that crappy black paint off the weapon and after smoothing out any metal damage, I'll have it Duracoated in black. I'm sure that by the time I'm through with it, I'll have spent several hundred Dollars more on it than I paid for it. It will be a long and expensive process, but I expect that it'll be worth it.
Hopefully, I'll get the chance to take it to the range within the next couple of weeks. That'll be before I get it finished, of course, but it will give me some idea of how it shoots.
Pixsurguy
Louisville, KY