Like all my 10/22s I had planned on giving this gun a full on trigger and action tuning, by polishing the parts and installing a reduced power trigger spring.

We will also install a KIDD auto bolt release and aftermarket billet aluminum trigger.

We will finish it up by polishing the whole housing to a bright shine.

We start by sanding the finish off the aluminum housing



Sandpaper, Dremel, buffer multiple items were used to get the aluminum shiny. I found the aluminum to be quite soft. 220 grit paper would leave deep scratches, I had to stick with 320 and higher grits.

I wanted to give the interior a serious cleaning, so I removed the safety while I was polishing the housing. To fit it back in I used a cheap trick, I drilled a 1/4" hole in a pencil and used it to hold the spring and plunger in place while I inserted the safety

The KIDD spring kit came with a "slave pin" to assist in installing the trigger/sear/dis-connector assembly

This is an Atomic Arms billet trigger



A little oil and some patience and we have a complete trigger assembly. I checked the trigger pull and inexplicably it came in at around 5 lbs??
It may be the mixing of old and new parts, I will do some additional investigating to see if I can get it down below 3lbs

http://tincanbandit.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-1022-target-rifle-project-part-3.html

Part 3 of this build, we are now working on the receiver.

If you remember, I purchased a new Charger receiver on Gun Broker. It has the standard satin black powder coat finish.


We will strip the factory powder coating back down to bare aluminum and polish it to a high shine

We will also perform some machine work to install the KIDD rear tang.

Before getting to the polishing and machine work we'll tackle an easy task:
One of my 10/22 cheap tricks I covered in March, was building your own bolt buffers using chain saw fuel line and stainless steel round stock. Since this is a DIY type build I decided to make my own bolt buffer.
The materials are perfect for this application. The fuel line is made from Tygon which as you would expect is oil (and gas) resistant and designed to remain flexible for years. Stainless steel is......well there is no need to explain stainless steel.

I ordered up a foot of 1/4"OD x 1/8"ID synthetic Tygon fuel line and two 6" pieces of stainless 1/8" rod. Both pieces were acquired from ebay vendors.



The total outlay was $8 and I can make at least 9 of them, if I am careful with my cutting, which makes the cost of the bolt buffer about a dollar and 5 minutes of time.

I marked the 1/14" on the rod and inserted it into the tubing



 Then cut to length

To install the KIDD rear tang, we had to machine the back of the receiver and drill a hole for the screw


I did not take pictures of the process, but here is the end result....



The current 10/22 receivers are powder coated, so I needed to remove the powder coating before I could polish the metal.

Before polishing the receiver I wanted to fit the rear tang to the receiver. The rear tang was designed to match the flat rib on the top of the KIDD receiver.
Also if you are wondering why the hole is low in the recess, it is to make room for a the cleaning hole that many people put in their receivers (hole is inline with the bore).

The different contours left a high spot on each side

Before going too far, I clean out the lettering with a sharp pick, don't want to risk scratching the metal after I polish it.



I found the metal to be REALLY soft. I could not use anything coarser than 320 grit and I could not use hard pressure. Doing so resulted in the metal "balling" up like a snow ball in the sand paper and gouging the metal



Scratches from the metal in the sand paper



After sanding to a 600 grit finish, I installed the scope mount screws to prevent dishing out the holes, plus they are stainless and will polish up nicely.

 I let the polish dry under the lamp and a while later performed another application




One final finishing touch, I bought a some new stainless button head cap screws to replace the black one that came with the KIDD rear tang

What did you use on the receiver after the 600 grit paper?  That is blindingly shiny!  If you would've done the first layer of the lettering in white then the next layer in red would be brighter and stand out better.

hmm, I'll have to try the white base coat trick

After the 600 grit I went to 1000, 2000, then Crokus cloth, then to the buffer....although my abrasive was a little too aggressive, so I will finish it off by hand using Mother's aluminum polish and a soft rag

The head space measured at just under .050", I have read that they typically run about .055" so this one may have been machined, which might explain why it was polished.

Optimal head space is between .044 and .047. Since this one is close, we will leave it as is for now.



One of the things often done to 10/22 bolts is installing a pin above the firing pin channel to prevent it from lifting up. By forcing the pin to travel in a straight line you end up with more consistent strikes to the rim, which is supposed to result in better precision.



Most of the aftermarket bolt makers have a pin pre-installed, like this one from JWH Custom (note the red circle)



You may ask why I didn't just buy one of their bolts with these mods already performed. I could have done that and stayed within the budget (it would have impacted our budget by an additional $60 or so), but the point of this built is to do it ourselves. After all, anyone can get out the credit card and buy a custom rifle or buy the parts pre-made.

The first step was to get the machinist vice clamped down and checked for level, then check to make sure I have the proper clearance to move the vice.
I left the level in place while drilling to make sure the bolt was not shifting.

Next I began cleaning and polishing the firing pin. I de-burred and rounded the edges, I even polished the retaining pin hole



 I'm not sure how much this helps, but it certainly can't hurt



The extractor, sanded and polished on all sides, edges de-burred



The extractor plunger was chucked in my drill and polished to 2400 grit

then re-assembled it



I wasn't happy with the depth of the "swirls" left by the cratex stick, so I started over. I bought a tube of valve grinding compound and a stainless brush for a Dremel, then I put some heat shrink on the brush to prevent the bristles from fanning out under pressure



This time the swirls are much deeper and defined

This has been a fascinating read.  I'm so glad that you've been including pictures as well. It's clear that you have a lot of talent and patience.   This helps me understand why my KIDD parts are so expensive.  I hate paying the price but I would never be able to spend the time or notice the details that you do.