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Imbel receiver on british kit?

6K views 25 replies 9 participants last post by  47lincsled 
#1 ·
This summer when I had a little extra money I stopped by my local pawn shop,he had a very nice FN FAL with a Imbel receiver built using a British lower, and most other parts as far as I could tell,I've spent all night trying to find identities of all the different pieces,I'm seeing broad arrows and BSA marks,plus crown markings,I couldn't find anything on the barrel itself,but it's not threaded for a muzzle brake and it doesn't have the rings for a bipod. The gun runs great! But it has that ugly black furniture,I want wood! I assume it is a inch pattern rifle,although it used metric mags,a common thing with these guns I've been learning. I buy a lot of projects for winter when it's too cold to play outside in my man cave,I want to sand down the lower and get rid of the tacky black paint,haven't decided if I want to go blue or park,either would be better then that tacky paint! I also want to replace the plastic with wood but I'm having award time figuring which wood set is going to work with the set up,I think the L1A1 parts should fit, as far as I can tell.
So any insight into my questions would be greatly appreciated. Will the wood L1A1 furniture fit the gun? And has anyone tried the L4A3 LMG mags in a Imbel upper that take metric mags? I would love to get a couple of 30 round mags but most of the aftermarkets out there don't have a very good reputation.
Ant other thought about this would be greatly appreciated!
 
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#3 ·
I 2nd Karl's suggestion. Near original inch guns -- most FALs in the US have replacement receivers -- are on the higher end of FAL collectability. I've gotten into FALs over the past few years and post to the FALFiles frequently. There is a lot of knowledge on the board. In general, FAL collectors are all about as "original" as possible. I only mention this because replacing original furniture or finish can decrease the desirability if retaining value is your goal.
 
#4 ·
Hopefully Abominog will chime in on this thread he is our resident FAL expert. HE is in Hawaii on business but I am sure he will spot this if he logs on. I love the FN FAL's they are great shooters and I prefer 7.62 x 51 for a battle rifle.
 
#5 ·
Fal

I'm not too worried about it's collectiblity, since it was built with an Imbel receiver I have to assume it's collector value is gone. I had another one about 20 years ago but could never get it to cycle properly so I sold it and regretted it ever since.
It's actually fine the way it is,I just prefer the look of wood on my rifle,my fist battle rifle was a Garand,that might have something to do with it.
 
#6 ·
Don't assume an Imbel receiver means it has no collectable value. 99% of all FALs are on replacement receivers and some inch parts kit can run north of $1000. To be blunt, please don't f-up a rare inch kit (if it is one). I have a mix-master metric rifle to trade if you want to bubbazize an FAL.

I'm not too worried about it's collectiblity, since it was built with an Imbel receiver I have to assume it's collector value is gone. I had another one about 20 years ago but could never get it to cycle properly so I sold it and regretted it ever since.
It's actually fine the way it is,I just prefer the look of wood on my rifle,my fist battle rifle was a Garand,that might have something to do with it.
 
#7 ·
What's the receiver marked? Is it a gear logo? Or a CAI built Imbel? CAI used some Imbel receivers and a mesh of parts. The Imbel receivers command a premium now days for the gear logo and less for CAI marked, same receiver just "tarnished" with CAI. If it's a Century gun it's worth about $6-700, more when parted out. Pics would help a lot.
 
#9 ·
pictures

I knew last night when I posted this that I should have put some pictures up,but it was midnight and was ready to go to bed! But here are a couple. The carry handle is wood painted black,the rest is black plastic.
When did the Brits go to plastic stocks? If I go with wood it shouldn't require any modification to install should it? If so then I wouldn't bother,I was assuming it's a direct fit.
 
#10 ·
That is a mash of parts. Mostly Aussie and Brit inch, some Metric. Top dollar is $700 and that's top. That receiver would bring $400ish the "kit" about the same depending on this and that. Most of the inch and Metric stuff interchanges-ish. You would be better served with inch furniture. And feel lucky you got one that runs "correctly"
 
#11 ·
L1a1

Thanks for the info,I don't feel too bad about mucking it up! I did OK on the price as well,I only gave $700 out the door,plus it came with 6 very clean mags, and all of them work as well,that's the first thing I checked, I grabbed an assortment of different ammo,everything from fresh factory hunting rounds to dirty LC stuff,got great groups and had no problem hitting a man sized target at 500 yards!
 
#13 ·
Fal

Sounds like CAI buys big boxes of parts from wherever and just throws whatever is next on the gun! I guess as long as it works and you aren't looking for a museum piece it's OK.
Any place better then another for buying a stock set,cheapest I can find on GB is $175 for everything? Doesn't seem to as much out there no days.
 
#14 ·
Post a WTB ad in the FALFiles Marketplace.

Sounds like CAI buys big boxes of parts from wherever and just throws whatever is next on the gun! I guess as long as it works and you aren't looking for a museum piece it's OK.
Any place better then another for buying a stock set,cheapest I can find on GB is $175 for everything? Doesn't seem to as much out there no days.
 
#15 ·
As you can tell CAI is the kiss of death for value on a FAL...

Bit of a gloat here. I got one for cheap, trade at a gun show. Tore it down, sold the receiver on GB for a few hundred, then bought a few parts to make it all L1A1 and got the correct receiver from Coonan. I now have a nice high value L1A1. In other words, if you are after value, this could be a great parts kit. In my case, its still a shooter, but i had fun getting it built right.
 
#16 ·
Century built a BUNCH of FALs using L1A1 parts and anything else they had laying around. The ones with a bare muzzle like your typically had the British flash suppressor cut off. Sometimes you can see a divot where the retaining washer fit.
Some of those receivers were cut for Inch magazines. Most were just cut for metric. Easy to tell by looking to see if the inside of the magazine well has a large recess instead of a small half-moon cut that fits the metric magazine.
British barrels are very high quality just like almost all FAL barrels. Some have chromed bores and chambers.

Wood furniture should fit without any problems. The British went to plastic as it is stronger, lighter, and impervious to bad weather.

There is a huge wealth of information on these rifles on FALFiles.com. Just like here, check out the stickies for useful information.
If it had not been for all of the dirty tricks during the competition to replace the Garand, we probably would have had the T-48 FAL or Armalite AR10 instead of the M-14.
 
#18 ·
Fal

I just bought it because I knew they were great rifles and it never hurts to have another real battle rifle,especially since I already have lots of .308 laying around for the M14,the 1919 and my Ishapore SMLE which I turned into a jungle carbine.
And now that I know that it's not worth any more then I gave for it I don't feel bad in back dating it.
The stock set I'm buying came with a flash hider,not sure how I'm going to attach it,might have to find a die and thread the end of the barrel. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it!
 
#19 ·
The stock set I'm buying came with a flash hider,not sure how I'm going to attach it,might have to find a die and thread the end of the barrel. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it!
Don't use a die!!!!! There are many good smiths who can put the proper thread on the barrel at reasonable cost. Do it right and you will never regret it. A die will not get the threads concentric to the bore no matter how good you are. And good barrel threading will expand your options (Suppressor? Different flash suppressor?).
 
#24 ·
Only problem with that is that I don't have any gunsmiths around,my nearest is Lloyd and he's an hour and a half away,plus the cost is already going to exceed the value of the rifle, pulling the barrel and reinstalling it can't be cheap.
Actually, I'm about six hours away now, but I get to southwest Utah regularly. If you want the threading done on a lathe let me know by PM and we can coordinate with trips back and forth. Imagine there is something in your boneyard we can trade for.

Unless the bore of the flash hider is exceptionally large please don't go the die route. With brakes the typical specification is that the bore of the brake be cut 0.020" in diameter larger than the bore of the barrel. The barrel bore is rarely in the exact center of the barrel, so it is easy to eat up some or all of that 0.010" buffer around the projectile by relying on the outside diameter of the barrel to set the center of your threads.

Not familiar with Frog's system, but it should work if the discrepancy between center of the bore and center of the overall barrel contour is very minor. Otherwise a lathe is best so you can cut a threaded stub centered on the bore.
 
#22 ·
47lincsled,

You can always try a Thread Alignment Tool (TAT ) it fits in the bore with a land touching shank and is threaded for the die you need ,so the die cuts in alignment to the bore not the outside of the barrel .

One source i know of http://www.cncwarrior.com
They even offer rotary broaches for getting the right Dia. for the threading the muzzle . All without a lathe .

They work well just a pointer in the use of one make sure there is a gap between the TAT`s threaded section and muzzle as you run the die down .

There is more than one way to skin anything !!:tongue:
 
#23 ·
Your rifle was assembled by CAI with an IMBEL metric receiver and a Brit kit in the later 90s. It came from Century with a thumbhole stock and original Brit handguard. Somebody must have put an original stock and PG on it.

These are excellent builds. I have seen but one, and heard of two more, that were not correctly assembled. This, as everyone knows, is highly unusual for Century. However, the fact remains that 99.9% of them headspace correctly, sights are properly aligned, and build is quality.

There are variations- some cut for inch mags, others metric, but most were metric cut.

The Maranyl furniture was introduced in 1968. The wood, while nice looking, doesn't hold up to any kind of real use.

If you pay to add a FH you won't get that money back when you sell it.

You have an excellent, if not "correct" 308 rifle. If it were mine I'd keep it as-is and shoot the heck out of it. If you want to spend $$$$ on FALs I can put you into an excellent SAR48 HB for $1800 or Armscorp FMAP S/N 0001 for $4000 or the earliest known (1957) Enfield L1A1 w/ all wood furniture for $1700. Or a T48 clone for $1800 or an R1 on Imbel for $1400 or Libyan clone w/ original near-NOS stock for $1800 or.....
 
#26 ·
Wood cleaning

My wood kit showed up this morning,I'm sure there was at least an extra pound of oil soaked into the wood! Other then the oil load it looked pretty good,standard dings and dent, no cracks that I could see and it came with a butt plate and muzzle brake. I tried to just start sanding but the paper clogged almost immediately, since it's a little cold right now the wood stove was going,so I borrowed one of my wife's cake cooling grates and put it on top of the wood stove,I love the smell of hot cosmoline, as soon as it started dripping I pulled it off and wiped it down with a paper towel,then I would set it aside to cool was it was cool enough to handle I would turn it over and put it back on the stove,after about an hour of this I figured there had to be another way,a couple of articles I read online suggested "Murphy's oil soap"as long as you aren't worried about the original finish, so a quick trip to the hardware store for that and some green scrubby pads,I heated the pieces up again wiped the down with a dry paper towel the a wet paper towel with Murphy's,the paper towel come out black,sucked that stuff right out,a couple more rotations and everything stopped oozing,the sand paper worked a lot better now.
The wood came up a lot lighter with all the crap off it,but the dings were still really dark so I got out my one inch soldering iron, a friend suggested using q tips with the iron,I soaked them in water then moved them back and forth along the dings,it not only help lift the wood but cleaned them out so they aren't so obvious.
With everything cleaned and sanded I had to get them all the same color,I have been using Fiebings leather dye for my reproduction holsters and found that it works great on wood, the pistol grip in this kit was a different type of wood,so it took a few more coats to get it to match,but after 4-5 hours of work the wood is ready to install.
I now have to decide what I am going to do with the receiver pieces,the lower is that nasty black paint,but the upper being Imbel is a light grey finish,if they were both the same I wouldn't care,either would look good,but being different really bothers me, when the buttstock tool arrives I'm going to try a little Birchwood casey cold blue and see if I can darken to the upper receiver, I found out that black paint is a real pain to remove if you don't have a blast cabinet.

 
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