Unpacking

    Back on 7/21/98, I sent my money order to Wes at Soupbowl Enterprises.  My only real complaint in this whole thing is the amount of time it took to receive the kit.  Wes said the manufacturer was having trouble making the polymer stock.  Anyway, on 8/26, I finally received the kit, which Wes kindly shipped via priority mail, so it got here in 3 days.  Upon opening the kit, I found the hammer, disconnector, and magazine parts (not needed for this gun) neatly packed in Gladlock bags.  The polymer stock parts were individually wrapped in newspaper, and the whole mess was carefully packed in a box full of those nifty styrofoam peanuts.  All the parts looked to be well made, quality items.

Installation

    I began by retrieving my SLR-95 from the Arsenal Room <g>, and field-stripping it.  I then proceeded to remove the ugly thumbhole stock (man, that felt good!), and the forearm.  Next, I slipped on the replacement forearm, which, unlike the factory forearm, does not have a metal heat shield.  I don't think this will make much of a difference, though.  I then twisted the original upper handguard off the gas tube, and rotated the new handguard into place.  No fitting was required for this step.  I then set the gas tube assembly off to the side.

    Now comes the hard part.  I used a screwdriver to push down on the retaining clip that holds the hammer and trigger pins in place.  This action enabled me to pull the hammer pin out with my fingers.  Once the hammer was free, I was able to wiggle it into a sideways position so it could be removed from the receiver.  I wiped the oil from the old hammer and placed it into the plastic baggie that the other parts came in.  Now that the hammer was out of the way, I pushed the retaining clip toward the rear wall of the receiver, and it finally came off the trigger pin after a few tries.  The trigger pin was easy to push out, and I removed the trigger assembly from the receiver.  Next, I removed the factory disconnector, wiped it off, and placed it in the plastic baggie along with the hammer and the magazine parts.  I lightly coated the new disconnector with a little Break-Free, placed the spring in the well, and put it back on the trigger.  I then put the trigger back into the receiver, lined up all the holes, slid the trigger pin through, and replaced the pin retainer clip.  The hammer was somewhat more difficult to re-install.  I had to push the retaining clip down, and insert the hammer pin to hold it there.  Next, I lightly lubricated the hammer with some more Break-Free, and slipped the hammer spring over it.  I managed to maneuver the hammer and spring back into position in the receiver.  Holding the hammer in place, I slipped the ends of the spring back over the catches at the rear of the trigger.  Next, while pressing the hammer against the left side of the receiver, I carefully removed the hammer pin, keeping the retaining clip in place.  This took a few tries, but I finally was able to get everything into position and slip the hammer pin back in before everything popped back apart.  This part probably took about 15-20 minutes.

    After getting all of the internals installed, I used the pistol grip screw from the thumbhole stock to attach the pistol grip to the rifle.  This was probably the easiest part of the whole thing.

    Next, disaster struck.  I was attempting to fully seat the buttstock when I heard a funny crack (actually I didn't find it very humorous at the time).  To my horror, I saw small piece of plastic fall to the floor.  It was the part of the buttstock that the tang of the receiver slides into.  The left side of the stock finally gave way to the pressures I was subjecting it to in my attempt to seat the buttstock.  After a short round of cursing, I grabbed the piece and took it down to the workshop and applied some fast-setting 2-ton epoxy.  Two hours later, it was as good as new.  Whew.  I carefully shaved off part of the buttstock that was in the way, and tried once again to fit it onto the gun.  I was a little more careful this time, though.  Success!  The buttstock fit nicely into the rear of the receiver after this minor modification.  Hint: If you scratch the stock with a screwdriver during installation or while fitting the stock, a little petroleum jelly will remove the scuff mark.  I used the supplied screw and washer to fasten the buttstock inside the receiver.

    I then began reassembling the rifle, since I was finished with all the internal parts.  When I attempted to replace the gas tube assembly, however, I couldn't quite fully seat it.  I examined the area and soon discovered that the forearm and handguard were hitting each other a little sooner than they should have.  A Dremel tool made short work of shortening the little posts that stick out from the upper handguard.  In a couple of minutes, the gas tube was in place.

    After reassembling the whole rifle, all that was left to do was drilling a few holes.  I took the whole rifle down to the workshop and used my handy Craftsman cordless drill to drill the holes for the tang screw and the two screws for the sling attachment.  This only took a few minutes.  Behold!  Shown below is the completed rifle, before and after installation of the kit.

Overall Satisfaction

    Aside from the kit taking so long to arrive, and my little screw-up with the buttstock (completely my fault), I am quite impressed with the look and feel of this kit.  The buttstock is completely solid, not hollow like most other synthetic stocks I've seen.  Also, the buttstock is much lower than the thumbhole stock, making it far easier to align my eye with the sights.  The pistol grip is also very comfortable to use.  I would recommend this kit to anyone who owns one of these fine firearms.
 
 

Before:

 
 

After: